Reunited
by Invisible Hearts
Summary: After meeting three of their worst enemies again, Kaoru, Momoko, and Miyako must face them! But what changed? And what remained? RRBZ and PPGZ :P Disclaimer: I do *not* own Demishitaa! PowerPuff Girls Z. Chapter 16 is up! More to come soon!
1. Sophomore Year

**Reunited**

**Chapter 1: Sophomore Year**

All is quiet in Tokyo City. Today, school starts. In North High School, as kids are rushing through the hallways. Among those kids was Momoko. She walked through the hallway, tangerine-orange hair sweeping side to side. The hair was grown up to her knees, and it followed her through the hallways. She clutched her pink binder- decorated with hearts and pictures of her two best friends, Miyako and Kaoru. No one noticed the tall girl walk up to the left doors of the cafeteria and stop abruptly.

_Where is Miyako? And Kaoru? _She thought to herself. After waiting for about a minute, she reached down to fix the cuffs of her neon-pink boots.

"Oi, Momoko!" a familiar voice shouted from the hallway. Momoko looked up, her strawberry-pink eyes peeking from behind her orange bangs. Kaoru raced towards her, her blue-black hair in its messy, usual self. Kaoru had grown taller-- to the height of Momoko. Kaoru was wearing an all-new college soccer sweatshirt, grey with a green and white soccer ball on it. She had deep blue skinny jeans on, with green converses. All in all, the outfit matched her emerald eyes. "What's up Momoko? Where's Miyako?"

Momoko was shocked at how gorgeous her friend looked, while still being tomboyish and sporty. "Wow Kaoru! You're so tall now!" she said.

"Yeah, yeah." Kaoru said indifferently. "You sound like my grandmother. It's only been two months, not two years, since we last saw each other. You're pretty tall yourself, though."

"Thanks Kaoru." Momoko smiled at the compliment. "But it has been two years since we first met." Before Kaoru could respond, a gentle voice called from the end of the hallway.

"Momoko! Kaoru!" Miyako ran towards the girls, almost tripping over her new boots over clumsiness. Her blonde curls, up to her shoulders, bounced up and down as she ran. As Miyako approached Momoko and Kaoru, the PowerPuff Girls Z were reunited again.

Momoko was overjoyed that they had the same homeroom. The three girls walked into a room with students communicating with each other, and a smiling teacher at the chalkboard. On the chalkboard it said,

_Ms. Beane_

_Homeroom_

_Room 284_

The three girls ran to three adjacent seats in the back.

"Let's sit here." Miyako said cheerfully. Over her short blue dress she wore her PPGZ belt as a fashion accessory.

"Yeah," said Momoko. "We need to make sure no one sees out belts flash." She looked down at her belt, which was turned around backwards to look like a real belt.

"Ha. I don't need to worry about that," said Kaoru. "Mine is hidden by my sweatshirt." Momoko stuck out her tongue at Kaoru and Miyako laughed. The girls took their seats as their teacher walked in the room.

"Class, today we have new students. They just transferred today, and were not here last year. Please welcome them to our school." The teacher said, with a gentle, yet high-pitched voice. The new students, three boys walked in. One with a red cap on backwards, with tufts of orange hair peeking out. One was blonde, his hair resembling Miyako's. And one had midnight blue hair behind his head in a short ponytail. As they walked in, Momoko, Kaoru, and Miyako made eye contact and gasped.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	2. Reunited

**Reunited**

**Chapter 2: Reunited**

"Ok boys," said Ms. Beane. "Please introduce yourselves. You, young man with the orange hair, take off your cap first and then introduce yourself." The boy sighed, and swept the hat off his hair and into his backpack.

"My name is Brick. These are my two cousins." He stepped away from his "cousins". The one with the blonde hair stepped up.

"Boomer." He stepped away and the last boy, the one with a short ponytail, stepped up.

"Butch."

"My. What unusual names. Are those your real names or just nicknames?" The teacher asked.

"Real," answered Butch. "Because we are unusual people." The boys smirked and several girls in the class giggled. The teacher led them to their seats and stepped out of the room.

"Now students, feel free to introduce yourselves to them." Ms. Beane left the room. In a moment, a billion girls surrounded the new boys.

"_Brick!!! Can I have your number!"_

"_Will you go out with me?"_

"_Hey Butch, where are you from??"_

"_Are you single?"_

"_Boomer, call me!"_

Momoko turned to Miyako and Kaoru.

"They can't be…" she said, eyes, wide open.

"They have to be…" said Miyako, staring at her binder.

"The RowdyRuff Boys…" the girls said in quietly unison.

The three boys turned around. They heard it. They stared into the eyes of the three girls. They were shocked too-- it was easy to tell by their faces. Miyako felt herself turning scarlet as Boomer stared into her eyes. Momoko wanted to turn away as Brick stared at her. She wanted to- she _had_ to… But she couldn't, she was frozen in place. As for Kaoru, she looked like she was in a staring contest with Butch. Butch looked dull and without an expression, but Kaoru squinted her eyes, and grasped her desk, pouting at the boy. Boomer then leaned to whisper something into Brick's ear. Brick smiled and told Butch, who grinned as well. They gave one last stare and turned back.

The three girls were pondering about the new boys. Outside the school on the grassy green campus. Momoko, the chattiest of the group, was unusually silent, trying to think everything through. Momoko felt like she was going crazy. Nothing was making sense.

"I think they were…_them_." Whispered Miyako.

"No shit, Miyako." Kaoru said.

_I don't know if he can be the real Brick… The RowdyRuff Boy. My enemy. _Our_ enemy. Our _enemies._ Why was he looking at me like that? What did they whisper about? Was it about me? I mean… us? Did they recognize us?_

"You're so rude," giggled Miyako.

"You're so girly." Kaoru responded.

"Hey Kaoru…"

"Yeah, Miyako?"

"Boomer was staring at me."

"He _was_? That's odd, because Butch was staring at me…"

"You don't think they remember us?"

"Ditz. It's obvious they do. I just don't know if they know we are the PPGZ or they just think we look familiar."

"You don't think it's because of the _kiss_?"

"What kiss? Oh… _that _kiss."

"How many kisses have you had already, Kaoru?" asked Miyako, giggling.

"None of your business. But Miyako…"

"Yeah?"

"It wasn't really a kiss."

"I know… but…"

"We blew a kiss. That's the closest those losers will ever get to romance." Kaoru snorted and Miyako giggled even more. Then they noticed it was pretty quiet. Kaoru turned to Momoko.

_Why is she so silent? She's usually the one to be a freaking chatterbox-- to talk about girly things such as hot guys or new romance mangas or new weird-flavored candies. Is she thinking about them?_

_Why _was_ Butch staring at me? Such a loser. We've beaten them before. But now… their auras seem different. They're almost completely white. Almost, but not yet. Swirling with some black.. I don't even want to know what dirty thoughts are contaminating their auras. Probably like us on stripper pole or something. I can't tell what they are… Like they're not evil, but not good. They used to be our enemies, but now… It's not pure white… but very very close. It's like… _

Kaoru's thoughts were interrupted by Miyako's high-pitched voice.

"Momoko, you haven't said anything," said Miyako. Momoko's head jerked up.

"Oh, just think--" Momoko walked into a person. "Sorr-" she said as she looked up, but then stopped. Brick was staring at her. Grinning. "Excuse me," said Momoko. She tried to walk the other way but Brick moved in her way again. Momoko noticed a very strange aura… it was grey. Brick's aura was grey… But a dark grey.

_Holy crap!!! I bumped into him… Dark aura… darker than this morning… This can't be good! Please don't remember me… Please don't remember me…_

"Please move." She said, a little angrily. Brick did not move. Momoko looked to the side. Boomer was in the way of Miyako, and Butch in the way of Kaoru.

"Drop the act, Blossom." Brick was grinning. Momoko was fuming.

"Please move!" Blossom tried to shove Brick away, but he grabbed her arms.

"Dumbass, move!" Kaoru shouted, leaping at Brick. Butch caught her just in time, his aura looking much darker than before.

"She said move! Get out of our way!" shouted Miyako at Boomer. Boomer stood with a smug look on his face, his arms crossed.

"Blossom, you look so tall now. Your legs grew. And so did some other parts of your body." Brick looked at her, glancing head to toe.

"Perv! Get lost, Brick!" she shouted, her eyes looking less strawberry and more blood-red.

"You're not so sexy when you shout, Blossom." Said Boomer. Brick gave a life-threatening glance at Boomer. Boomer turned around to face Miyako. "Neither are you."

"Let's make a deal." Butch said, squatting slightly to have equal eye level with Kaoru. He was grinning mischievously. His eyes seemed different… his black pupils were dilated, almost taking over his entire eye, leaving only a glowing, dark green ring surrounding it.

" Hell no! Let me go!" said Kaoru. "I'm not making any freaking deals with you!"

"The deal is you do something for us, and we'll let you go, Bubbles." said Boomer.

"Don't call me that!" Miyako She tried to step on his foot, but he dodged, and she stumbled forward.

"Just let us go. I don't know what you're doing here, and I don't care right now." said Momoko.

"We'll let you girls go for a second kiss." Brick said.

"WHAT?! Never!" Kaoru said, attempting to kick Butch. Butch blocked, and Kaoru fell back, falling on her rear.

_What the hell is wrong with them?!_

"Either a kiss, or you're stuck here. And who knows where our hormones will lead us if you're stuck here." Brick spun Momoko around, pinning her against the wall. Kaoru leaped towards Brick's head, but Butch caught her, falling with her on the floor and pinning her down as well. Miyako glared at Boomer, not wanting to get into trouble. But she was pissed as hell too. Miyako knew she had three options, run, attack, or stay in place. She couldn't run and leave her friends here. She couldn't attack, because she would be blocked and pinned down too. But stay in place and do nothing? She knew she was a wuss compared to the other too, but she had to take her chances. Boomer leaned in towards her face. She had to do something. NOW. She could _not_ kiss that blonde perv. As he leaned in, Miyako tried to punch Boomer in the nose, but he noticed too quickly. Miyako's tiny fist soared past Boomer's head. In a second, he caught her wrist, and spun her around until her arm was behind her back. Miyako winced in pain, and her knees buckled.

"Miyako!" yelled Momoko and Kaoru. Momoko's head spun back to Brick.

"You won't _dare_ do anything to us Brick!" Momoko shouted.

"Oh yeah?" Brick lifted an eyebrow, and with one hand holding both of her skinny wrists, he opened one of the buttons on her orange blouse. Momoko squirmed and kicked, but he was still able to open the first button. "Do I _dare_ go any further?" Momoko had tears about to overflow. She didn't know though, what was going on in Brick's mind.

_What the fuck is happening to me? Why am I doing this? I can control my actions, can't I? I'm not doing this on purpose… But it seems like… like my emotions and desires are taking over me. Why the hell does she still think I'm a bad person? I changed. I'm trying to be a normal person now. I don't like her, and I don't want to do the second option any more than she does. I just want one chance from her… But if I keep doing this, she'll hate me forever. Can I stand that? I don't hate her… She's not my enemy anymore… I just… want to know if she likes me or not… Does she? It's not like I like her or anything!!! I'm just, curious… Should I?_

Years passed. Or at least it seemed like it. Momoko kept her eyes shut, afraid to open them. But even without opening her eyes, she felt Brick's aura lighten.

_Why the hell is he bothering me?! I don't like him. I don't want to kiss him… or maybe I do. No… I don't! Or maybe… Oh my gosh, stop thinking like this, Momoko! He's an enemy! But the best thing would be just to kiss him and get it over with. I don't want… Plan B._

Momoko felt Brick's grip suddenly loosen. His aura lightened, and his red eyes, slightly hidden by his orange hair, became less cherry-red and became calmer. Butch and Boomer, upon noticing this, loosened their grip too. Momoko opened her eyes slowly, tears streaming down her face.

"Look, I'm sorry Blossom. I wanted to start over. It was supposed to be a prank to see if you guys still like us, but it went too far and backfired." said Brick.

"A PRANK?!" shouted Kaoru. She kicked Butch off her, and ran towards Brick, tackling him. Kaoru had Brick in a headlock. "It was your idea, wasn't it?!" Boomer let go of Miyako, who stumbled to the floor, and he tried to get Kaoru off Brick. Butch ran too, trying to pull Kaoru off.

"Still like you?! We never liked you in the first place! How dare you even have thoughts like that!" Momoko barked.

"What about the kiss!" yelled Boomer. Boomer let go of Kaoru and stood up.

"You're not getting a kiss, you moron!" shouted Kaoru, still gripping Brick's neck. Butch was trying to pull her off, but not succeeding. Kaoru refused to let go.

"No! Not this kiss! The kiss… the one years ago!" shouted Brick. Suddenly Kaoru paused, and let go of Brick's neck.

"That wasn't a kiss! We had to do it to stop you!" Kaoru screeched.

"Still a kiss," said Butch.

"No!!! Air kiss! Not a real kiss, idiot!" yelled Momoko. Then she stopped. "Miyako?" Everyone stopped and looked around until Momoko saw Miyako, collapsed on the floor. Momoko ran towards Miyako, and started shaking her. Miyako had a bruise on her cheek, and on her arm. "You idiot! You hurt her!" yelled Momoko. She pointed an accusing finger at Boomer.

"Don't you guys know when to end a joke?!" Kaoru ran towards Miyako and picked her up. Miyako was unconscious. She picked up Miyako and started walking in the direction of Momoko's house. Momoko stood up, and glared one last time at Brick. She stood up and ran towards Kaoru, letting her tangerine hair sway side to side.

**Author's Note:**

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	3. Recovering

**Reunited**

**Chapter 3: Recovering**

_Ugh… where am I? What happened? Why is everything around me so black? Wait… are my eyes even open?_

Miyako lay in Momoko's bed. Momoko was in the kitchen, making tea for her friend. Kaoru was watching soccer in the room across Miyako, though not making a sound when her favorite team scored a goal because she was worrying. Miyako struggled to open her eyes.

_I want to open my eyes. Why can't I?! Open! I'm not dead! I can still hear Momoko making tea and munching cookies. I can still hear the TV and the soccer game. Open! I need to open my eyes! Why can't I? Oh, OW. That hurt… Why do my eyes hurt so much? What's going on?_

_Ok, I didn't lose my memory. That's for sure. Or maybe… Ok. I'm a fifteen-year-old girl. My name is Miyako. I'm a member of PPGZ. My secret identity is Rolling Bubbles, or just Bubbles. Brick, Boomer, and Butch are enemies, just like Mojo, an evil monkey… Whatever. I know all this. No memory loss. Whew._

_But what happened? What happened to me? Did I fall? Did someone hit m-._

_Oh my gosh. Boomer. The RowdyRuff Boys had blocked us and wouldn't step out until we kissed them. And Boomer twisted my arm around. Gosh, it hurt so much. He twisted it so hard. How did they become so strong? What happened after I fell? Did Momoko and Kaoru actually kiss the RowdyRuff Boys? Oh, I want to know. I want to know now! I need answers! What happened!!_

Miyako quickly sat up in her bed. She was sweating, and her eye was on fire. It burned, and so did her cheek. Trembling, she tried to stand up off the bed. She slid out off the covers and off the bed. She landed on her rear on the floor. It barely made a sound. Gripping onto the bed covers, Miyako tried to stand up. The bed cover slipped off and landed on the floor with Miyako. Again, it was a small thud. Miyako curled her tiny fingers around the bed post, which was fortunately sturdy enough to support Miyako's small weight. Miyako stood up, with quivering knees, and pushed herself to stand up. She took baby steps to the mirror and gasped when she saw her reflection.

_Oh no! I look horrible! My eye is all black and swollen! And my cheek has a black patch too! My hair-- it's so messy! And my blue dress is wrinkled and ripped!_

Miyako burst into sobs as she stared into her reflection. Kaoru heard the sobs and ran to Miyako.

"You're awake!" yelled Kaoru, as she ran to embrace her friend.

"And I'm a mess! Look at me!" Miyako wailed.

"No big deal. I'm happy you can at least walk. Those thuds, were they from you?" Kaoru asked cautiously.

"Yes. I fell off the bed and I fell when trying to stand up." Miyako sniffled. At that moment, Momoko ran into the room with a tray of tea and soup. She was wearing a checkered red and white apron, and her hair was up in a ponytail with a red ribbon, like it was in middle school.

"Are you ok? Do you need anything?" asked Momoko, sounding like an overprotective mother.

"N-no… But you didn't kiss them… did you?" Miyako trembled.

"Hell no!" exclaimed Kaoru. "No freaking way. They said it was all a prank. I would have killed them but then we noticed you were knocked out."

"Can I get some cover-up?" asked Miyako feebly.

"Oh, you're so vain!" exclaimed Kaoru again. "It's just a bruise! I'm proud of my bruises!"

"Oh Kaoru, shut up." Said Momoko, giggling. "Let's go watch a movie downstairs."

"Yeah! Let's watch 'The Nightmare on Elm Street'!"

"No, I'd rather watch 'The Princess Diaries' or 'A Cinderella Story'."

"Ew, no! It's so girly!"

"It's ok to be a girl, Kaoru. I like those movies."

"It's ok to be a girl that doesn't wear skirts and watch girly movies, Miyako."

"Oh my gosh! You two stop arguing!"

"Why don't you, princess Momoko? We're just playing around."

"Yeah Momoko, we're not really arguing."

"I know, I just said that so I could get to the popcorn first!"

"Oh no you don't! Don't make me tackle you!"

"Aaah! Momoko, Kaoru! Wait for meee!!!"

**Author's Note:**

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	4. Another Chance

**Reunited**

**Chapter 4: Another Chance**

Miyako, Momoko, and Kaoru stood by their lockers. They tried to forget the day before. And it was really hard. Just when they had forgotten, and moved on with a different topic such as last night's sport game or the latest fasion, the RowdyRuff Boys showed up at their lockers. Butch stopped at Kaoru's locker. Brick approached Momoko's locker, and Momoko spun around.. Miyako turned around as she saw Boomer coming her way.

"Look," said Brick, pausing. "I'm-- _we're_-- really sorry about what we did yesterday." Momoko stared at him, eyebrows bent in a perfect "V" shape.

"We don't really know how it happened. We couldn't control ourselves." said Butch. Kaoru's eyes were wide open, and she took a step forward.

"Why don't you save your fucking story for someone else, huh? Preferably someone a little more gullible." Kaoru hissed.

"Kaoru! Relax… people are staring…" Miyako interrupted. Kaoru sent a warning look to anyone who was looking her way. The passerbys turned around and kept walking.

"We're serious. We never intended to hurt you guys. We just wanted to approach you and talk to you. After that we just kinda blacked out..." Boomer said.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Momoko hissed. "You, our _enemies, _are expecting us to believe that you were possessed or unconscious or not able to control your actions? What, did Mojo teach you this?"

"No, he didn't. He just… disappeared after the black light was taken." Butch said patiently, looking up at Momoko.

"And how come _you_ weren't turned back?" questioned Miyako, still not facing the boys.

"I guess… I don't know." Said Boomer.

"I know why. I can tell you." An unfamiliar voice said. The six turned around, and a girl with deep purplish-eyes stared at them. Her stare wasn't angry, just uneasy. She was leaning against the wall. Her purplish-black hair was short and cropped around her face. It looked a little messy, and almost resembled Kaoru's. "My name is Rei." She looked at the RowdyRuff Boys. "If you'll excuse me, I need to talk to these three girls alone. I will explain later."

"What makes you think you can interrupt our conver--" Brick questioned.

"I said I'll explain later. I need to talk to the PPGZ alone." Rei said calmly. The three girls looked uneasy, surprised that this stranger knew who they were.

"You heard the girl," Kaoru said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "So why don't you do what was _supposed _to happen after the black light was gone, and disappear."

The RowdyRuff Boys stepped away from the girls and walked down the hallway, and the stranger stepped forward.

"Wh-who are you?" asked Miyako.

"What do you want?" asked Kaoru.

"Bubbles, Buttercup, hold on. Let me explain everything." Kaoru and Miyako stared at her when she said their PPGZ names. "My name is Rei. I guess you can say I'm the fourth PPGZ member."

"WHAT?! I thought there were only the three of us!" exclaimed Momoko.

"Well, the three of you were the original PPGZ. Let me explain. When you defeated _Him_, the black light left all of the monsters. The black light was captured by _Him_'s box. Then, Professor Utonium retrieved the box and the black light inside the box. Then, using the _Converter _he--"

"The what?" asked Miyako.

"The _Converter_," repeated Rei. "It's a device that coverts dark energy or dark matter into "good" energy, or regular energy. But what he didn't calculate was that chemical Z, the chemical in that dark energy, takes up more space in light form. _Him_'s box exploded, and the light energy was scattered everywhere. It flew across the town--"

"Why only across the town?" asked Momoko.

"Because when chemical Z was fired at the glacier, the rays flew only across the town. The rays aren't aerodynamic enough to fly further than across the town." Rei said. Momoko nodded. "As I was saying, the white rays flew across the town and hit several objects. The white rays hit objects like flowers and animals, which resulted in huge, fragrant flowers and tame, loyal creatures. I was the only human that was hit by the rays."

"This sounds like total bull…" said Kaoru. "The monsters still remained after we beat _Him_."

"I know." sighed Rei. "But it's true. Slowly, the black energy was being sucked out of the monsters. Over this summer, they completely disappeared. After I was hit, I was immediately contacted by Professor Utonium, and I flew, yes, _flew_ to his laboratory. There he explained everything to me and we came across this theory. Before you ask any more questions, I'd like to say that it does sound completely crazy, and a lot to take in in just a few minutes, but you _have _to believe me. When I transformed, I had exactly the same uniform as you three do; skirt, shirt, vest, boots, choker, gloves, and belt. In fact, I still have the belt right now." Rei opened her bookbag and took out a PPGZ belt- identical to the girls' except the center button was purple.

"Wow! It's purple! So that means that your color is purple…" Momoko said, trying to piece the information together.

"Yes it is. Is there anything else you want to know?" Rei asked.

"What is your weapon?" asked Miyako.

"What's your transforming phrase?" asked Momoko.

"Will you have to fight with us?" questioned Kaoru.

"My weapon… um… let's see…" Rei put a finger to her cheek and looked up at the ceiling. "Oh yeah! A slingshot. My transforming phrase is 'Clever Blueberry'. And unfortunately for you, Buttercup, I have to fight too. It's my duty." Rei looked down at the floor. "I know this is happening too fast for you girls to handle, but I hope you can understand." Kaoru muttered something under her breath. Momoko thought about the fourth member for PPGZ.

"Wait, didn't you say you would explain the RowdyRuff Boys?" Miyako asked.

"Oh right," Rei said. "Sorry, I forgot. You see, the reason the RowdyRuff Boys didn't turn into dark light is because they were created artificially-- Mojo created them. He created them from objects used by you three. Those objects still had you DNA on it-- which contained white light. When you defeated _Him_ the black light left them and the white light remained. The other monsters didn't remain as their monster figures because they were pure black light. So I guess you can say the evil left the RowdyRuff Boys. They're just regular boys now-- raging hormones, crazy ideas, you know. I just hope their intentions aren't bad" Rei looked at her watch. "And one more thing - Just because I'm also a member of PPGZ, it doesn't mean you have to hang out with me or anything. I don't want to invade your friendship, and I have friends of my own. I won't feel left out or anything, promise. I'll just be fighting with you. And you'll see me at Professor Utonium's lab, okay? If you want to contact me, I'm junior class C and I'll give you my cell number." Rei took out a piece of paper with her cell phone number written on it and ran out of the class room.

"She's a junior? She's older than us." Said Miyako.

"Yeah I know. Just copy the number." Kaoru said, pushing buttons on her cell phone number to add Rei to her contacts.

The bell rung and the girls reluctantly went to homeroom.

---

The RowdyRuff Boys approached the girls. Brick came up to Momoko and asked,

"She's gone right? Tell us everythin-" The bell interrupted.

"After class." whispered Momoko. The three boys went to their seats, and the class begun.

After class, walking on the campus, Momoko, Miyako, Kaoru, Brick, Boomer, and Butch were walking together.

"So what did she say?" asked Brick. Momoko sighed.

"I don't know where to even begin! I'll try to sum it up-- the black light left the monsters and because you three were made with our DNA you have white light in you. So when the black light left, the white light remained. You're regular boys now. Except you can fly."

"But who was she?" asked Boomer.

"She was hit by white light too, only later. She's PPGZ number 4: Blueberry." said Miyako, covering her cheek so no one would see her bruise.

"Then why isn't she here?" asked Butch.

"Why do you care? Do you _want _her to be here?" asked Kaoru.

"No, I just want to know why she's not hanging around you guys." Butch replied.

"She has a life of her own. She's a junior. She's just helping us fight." Kaoru said back.

"Hey, are we forgiven?" asked Brick.

"Forgiven for what?" asked Momoko.

"For what we did yesterday." Brick answered.

"I don't know. Are they, Miyako?" Momoko asked.

"I'll think about it." Miyako replied with a giggle.

"You guys forgive too easily." Kaoru said. "If it was my choice, I would make them work to be forgiven. They have to deserve it."

"Wow, Kaoru. I've never heard you sound more like a feminist." Butch joked.

"What was that?! You did _not_ just call me a feminist!" Kaoru yelled.

"Yeah he did." laughed Brick.

"Don't take it seriously," warned Momoko. Kaoru sighed and clenched her teeth.

"Whatever." She grumbled. "Hey, aren't we supposed to go to Professor Utonium's after school?" she suddenly asked. "We haven't been there in the summer. Nothing really happened lately, but I still want to go to see him and Peach and Ken."

"Oh yeah, Ken! He must be so big now! Ten years old. How cute!" said Miyako. The girls giggled while the boys just stared with confused faces. They let it pass and just kept walking. Then Brick said something that surprised everyone.

"Hey Blossom, you have a cute laugh." He said, smiling while he was walking. Momoko stopped laughing abruptly, and Kaoru and Miyako just looked back with surprised faces.

"Um… thanks?" she said, making the phrase sound more like a question than a statement. Butch and Boomer glared at Brick like he was an idiot. Brick ignored them and just kept walking. Momoko started thinking.

_A cute laugh? He really thinks so? That was sweet of him… but that was awkward. Really, really awkward. Does he really mean it or is he just trying to get to me? _

Eventually the awkward silence passed away, and everyone was talking, except for Momoko, who was still replaying that sentence in her head over and over again.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	5. At the Lab

**Reunited**

**Chapter 5: At the Lab**

**Note: I have updated this! No more raping the Japanese language! Yaaay! ^^**

Momoko, Miyako, and Kaoru parted the boys. Momoko waved goodbye to Brick, who surprisingly, smiled back at her. Kaoru parted with Butch with a quick "Yeah... bye…" and Miyako just gave a parting glance and smile to Boomer. As the girls started to leave, Brick, Butch and Boomer turned around and started walking the other way. The Boomer remembered something important.

"Ah! Miyako! Wait a second!" Boomer said as he ran to her. Miyako turned around, and watched Boomer run up to her. Momoko and Kaoru kept walking, and so did Brick and Butch. Boomer stopped a foot away from her. "M…Miyako… I…forgot to… ask…you…" he said, taking breaths of air between words.

"Yes, Boomer?" Miyako asked.

"I forgot to ask you… Are you feeling alright? You know… from yesterday?"

"Oh... yeah, I guess I'm fine. I feel better." She said slowly, not making eye contact.

"Oh ok… I just wanted to say…" Boomer scratched the back of his head. It was obvious he was nervous. "Sorry."

"Oh." Miyako looked surprised. Manners? A RowdyRuff Boys with manners? Was it even possible? "Thanks for your concern." Miyako smiled. "Is that all?"

"Oh, um… hold on…" Boomer replied, digging through his pocket. He took out his closed fist, and when he opened it, inside was a tiny white swan origami. "I made it for you… Kind of like a sorry present…"

"Oh! It's really pretty." Miyako petted the top of the swan's head with her finger. She put the swan in her jacket pocket. "It was really nice of you… thank you." She looked at the floor. "So…I'll see you around?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so." Boomer smiled back. He gave a wave and turned around. Miyako turned around and ran back to her friends.

"What just happened?" Momoko asked slyly. "Oh, I'm curious! Tell me!!! What did he say?!"

"Oh… He just asked me if I was feeling well and apologized for yesterday." Miyako stroked her bruised cheek. "Oh, and he gave me this." Miyako took out the swan from her pocket.

"What a cute little trinket!" Momoko exclaimed. "He made this for _you_? How sweet!" Miyako nodded and put the swan back into her pocket. "Truthfully, Miyako, I'm a little jealous."

"Why? It's just a little piece of paper. Don't get overexcited." Kaoru said.

"But it's _romantic_! He made it just for her!" Momoko argued. "I wish I had someone liking me like that! But once again, Miyako gets all of the guys." Momoko paused, trying to think about what she just said. "Not that I like Boomer, it's just that the majority of the guys in our school like you."

"Of course. She has Brick to worry about." Kaoru replied with a laugh.

"_Excuse_ me?" Momoko said.

"You're worried that Brick hasn't done anything like that, aren't you?"

"Wha- no! Of course not! Why would I care about Brick?"

"Hmm… I don't know…" Kaoru said sarcastically. "Let me think…"

"Just because he likes me doesn't mean I like him! Besides, shouldn't_ you_ be worried about someone too?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play stupid. You know who." Momoko replied. Kaoru stared at her blankly, pretending to not know. "Butch."

"Him? Are you kidding?!" Momoko started to reply, but then noticed that she was at the steps of the laboratory. Momoko, Miyako, and Kaoru walked in.

"Professor Utonium?" Miyako called out. "Ken?" "Peach?"

"They're in the kitchen." The girls turned around to see Rei sitting on the edge of the stairs. Kaoru muttered something under her breath. The three girls walked in to kitchen, and saw Professor making a cup of tea.

"PowerPuff Girls Z! Long time no see!" Professor called out. He was wearing his usual lab coat and hadn't changed over the summer. Suddenly, a little mechanical dog ran up to the girls.

"PowerPuff Z da wan!" Peach called out. "I haven't seen you in a long time! My, you three look so tall now! Wow…" Peach was speechless. Then, a boy ran into the room, wearing a white lab coat, just like the professor.

"Peach! H-hold on!" Ken ran into the room, panting. As soon as he saw the PowerPuff Girls standing there, he straightened up and put on a sheepish look. "Oh, PPGZ! Long time no see! I guess Peach ran here because he smelled you." Momoko looked at Ken.

"My little Ken is so big now! Aww Ken! You're so grown up, yet still so cute and adorable!" Momoko ran to him and hugged him tight. "You're ten years old! How is middle school?"

"Ken, do you have a crush yet?" asked Miyako.

"Did you join soccer, like you promised me?" asked Kaoru. The three girls crowded around the boy.

"I've only been in middle school for a few days, so I--" but Ken was interrupted by an announcement on the laboratory screen.

"PowerPuff Z! You're back! Nothing has really happened over the summer, but something is happening now!" Mayor was in his office, with Miss Bellum behind him. The three girls looked at each other. Rei just sat on the steps of the stairs. "The animals from the zoo have escaped! It is up to you four to find them across the city!"

"Yes, Mayor!" Rei called out.

"Already? We have just gotten here…" Miyako said.

"Oh well! Let's transform!" Momoko said eagerly.

"Skirts again…Damn…" Kaoru rolled her eyes. Rei walked up to the three girls. Simultaneously, the four girls pressed their belts.

"_Hyper Blossom!"_

"_Rolling Bubbles!"_

"_Powered Buttercup!"_

"_Clever Blueberry!" _

Soon the girls had transformed, and Bubbles and Blossom were examining Blueberry's uniform.

"Wow! The flower clip is so pretty!" Bubbles exclaimed, touching Blueberry's hair clip, which was decorated with a purple flower. Blossom had said something else about Blueberry's outfit, also complimenting her.

"AAAAH! Did you forget already?! Let's go!" Buttercup yelled. "Don't you remember? Zoo?!" The three other girls looked at her.

"Oh yeah…" Blossom said. The four girls flew out, and flew across the town sky. People pointed and cheered, happy that the PPGZ were back from over the summer.

"_Hey, aren't there supposed to be three PowerPuff Girls Z?"_

"_Yeah, so?"_

"_I see four!"_

"_So? Now we have one more person to protect this city!" _

"_Oh yeah! That's pretty good!"_

Citizens of Tokyo City clapped from below, watching four different lights streak across the sky. The girls flew over the sky, searching for different animals.

"I see a crocodile!" exclaimed Blueberry.

"There's a bear!" yelled Blossom.

"Eeek! It's a tiger!" Bubbles pointed out.

"An army of lizards!" Buttercup noticed. The girls flew in different directions, picking up animals and placing them back in their cages at the zoo. After an hour, they were finally done.

"I'm tired…" Blossom whined. "And now we need to ask the zoo manager what happened."

"If you're that tired then the three of us can go speak to the zookeepers while you sit here." Blueberry said.

"Okay." Blossom said, sitting down on a bench, and wiping the sweat off her forehead. During that time, she was able to think.

_I can't believe all of the monsters had disappeared over this summer. I can't believe I missed it! I was in a summer house in France, Kaoru was at soccer camp, and Miyako was working her part-time summer job at _Le Beau. _It would've been fun seeing the monsters disappear… Except now I feel useless. Finding run-away animals and putting them back in the zoo? That's nothing compared to what we did before. Fighting giant evil monkeys and kicking robot butts. And now? Now we are zookeepers. Maybe it would be more fun if the monsters were back… Hold on, Blossom! What are you thinking! With the monsters back, life would be much harder! No 4.0 GPA, no sleep, no rest, and the citizens of Tokyo City would be disturbed! Wow, I sounded so selfish… But I do wish there was actually a reason for the PPGZ to still exist. Besides catching missing zoo animals. _

As Bubbles and Blueberry approached, Blossom snapped out of her trance. "Hey, where's Buttercup?" Blossom asked. Blueberry pointed back to the zoo. Blossom could just imagine…

"_How the hell did the animals escape?" _

"_Miss, I told you already! I don't know!" the frightened man replied. _

"_What kind of idiot doesn't notice a bear escaping?!"_

"_I'm really sorry for your troubles, miss!"_

"_Better not happen again!"_

"_It won't miss!"_

"_Stop calling me 'miss'!"_

"_Okay, m—Buttercup!"_

"_Hmph!"_

The three girls left the zoo while Buttercup still interrogated the zookeepers. "What happened?" Blossom asked.

"Oh. I guess the holes in the cages. That's the only thing we can piece together." Bubbles said.

"That's very likely, but none of the zookeepers actually saw the animals escaping." Blueberry added.

"Weird… Hey! I wanted to ask you, Blueberry, how is junior year?" Blossom asked. Blueberry though for a minute, then answered.

"It's good. It's fun, knowing you're one step from the top. My life is pretty good—great friends, great boyfriend…"

"It's not fun though, knowing you're one step from the bottom." Bubbles replied.

"Wait, did you say 'boyfriend'?" Blossom asked. "Tell me all about him!"

"Um… He's really nice. He's a classmate." Blueberry replied, not knowing what to say.

"How long have you been dating?" Blossom asked, absorbed by the subject.

"A few months…"

"What's his name?"

"Yoshida Ryota."

"Have you two kissed yet?" Blossom kept asking, forgetting her manners.

"Yes." Blueberry blushed when responding to Blossom's question.

"What does it feel like? To be in love?" Blossom asked again. Bubbles just listened to the conversation between the two girls.

"It's…tingly. Like you know someone is always going to be there for you." Blueberry responded again. The three girls flew into the laboratory and turned into their regular forms. Professor was asleep on the couch, with Ken and Peach sleeping next to him. "Why are you so interested anyway, Momoko?" Rei asked.

"She's just waiting for love. She falls for every cute guy she sees on the streets, Onee-sama." Miyako responded. Momoko nodded her head, unashamed of her trait.

"It's okay, I know you'll find love soon." Rei patted Momoko's head.

"How do you know?" Momoko asked.

"I don't. But…" Rei turned around and looked for her backpack. She opened her checkered backpack, which was decorated with smiley faces and hearts. She took out a back of card bundled together. "But I can find out." She said, holding the tarot cards in her palm.

When Kaoru reached the laboratory half an hour later, she noticed the three girls sitting on a carpet, cross-legged, in a circle around a bunch of cards. The professor, Ken, and Peach were still sleeping. Kaoru walked in through the door, already transformed back to her regular self, holding two bags.

"Eh, Kao-rin! Why are you so late?" Momoko asked.

"I... wanted to find out who did this." Kaoru answered. "And don't call me that." Momoko eyed the two plastic bags Kaoru was holding.

"You liar! You went to the store and bought the new Sgt. Frog dvd!" Kaoru nodded with an evil smile.

"What are you doing?" Kaoru put down her bags and headed towards the girls.

"Onee-sama is checking our futures with tarot cards." Miyako smiled, turning around to face Kaoru.

"Onee-sama?" Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "That close already?"

"Yeah. Do you want your future to be checked too?" Rei asked, peeking from behind funky pink zebra-striped glasses that she put on to read the tarot cards.

"You know how to?" Kaoru asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Sure! I learned it a couple of years ago…When I was about thirteen years old." Rei replied, happy that Kaoru finally agreed to do something with her. Kaoru walked up to the circle. Miyako and Momoko moved away so Kaoru could sit in between. Kaoru sat down, cross-legged as well, and Rei picked up and shuffled the cards.

"What did you get, Momoko?" Kaoru asked. "What does your amazing future say?"

"Sorry! I can't tell you 'till you get your results!" Momoko and Miyako giggled.

"Huh? Why?" Then, Rei thrust out her palm towards Kaoru.

"Shuffle your cards; put your energy in them." Rei said, smiling. Hesitantly, Kaoru took the cards and eyed them carefully. Kaoru tried to not to sound like she actually believed in the cards, but she tried to focus on shuffling the cards well and making them capture her energy. Kaoru gave the cards back to Rei, a serious look on her face. "Now ask a question out loud." Kaoru though for a moment about what to ask.

"What will happen to me in the near future?" Kaoru tried to sound indifferent, but she really did want to know. Rei laid out the cards on the floor. She looked at them for a minute.

"I know Kaoru will think I'm kidding." Rei smiled and laughed. "Love."

"What?!" Kaoru yelled, making Professor jump up from his sleep.

"What happened?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Look for yourself." Rei pointed out the cards and explained the meanings.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kaoru exclaimed. "What did you guys get?" Kaoru asked, turning to face Miyako and then Momoko.

"Love…" They said simultaneously.

"Well, what did you ask?" Kaoru said, feeling uneasy.

"I asked whether love is coming my way." Momoko replied, twirling her hair in her in her fingers. "It is."

"I asked what is in my future." Miyako said, giggling.

"Bullshit!" Kaoru cursed. "I think this is all bullshit!" Rei took off her pink glasses and looked at Kaoru.

"I don't know Kaoru…" she spoke slowly. "When I predicted events for myself, it usually came true."

"There's no way that _love_ will get to me!" Kaoru exclaimed, starting to throw a fit. Professor was still staring at the girls, unable to understand what was going on.

"Girls?" he asked. But the girls paid no attention. Miyako was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring up at Kaoru. Kaoru was standing up, shouting and cussing with her arms folded across her chest. Momoko stood up and shook Kaoru's shoulders. Kaoru just shoved Momoko's hand away.

"Calm down!!!" Momoko yelled. She was angry, her face turning a brighter pink. "Kaoru, you're such a drama queen! If you don't want to believe it, then don't!" After hearing this, Kaoru closed her eyes and breathed out. "It's just for fun anyway." Momoko stared at Kaoru, and Kaoru turned around to left to the kitchen.

Professor looked the three girls that remained in the living room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing…" Momoko sighed. "Kaoru's just being a drama queen." Suddenly, there was a slam of the refrigerator door.

"But what happened?" Professor asked, pulling a blanket over Ken's sleeping body, and fluffing up Peach's pillow.

"We were having our futures checked by ne-sama." Miyako replied, trying not to cry at the situation. She didn't like it when people argued, especially not her friends.

"Onee-sama?" The professor asked. "I guess you girls have bonded." Then, there was a slam of the microwave door. The Rei, Miyako, and Momoko ignored the noise and nodded. Momoko then checked her watch.

"Ah! It's 5:30! _Romeo x Juliet _is on in half an hour!" she said to Miyako. "We can get popcorn from my house!"

"Oh yeah! We have to go!" Miyako exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

"Bye Rei! Bye Professor!" the girls shouted as they left. As soon as the laboratory door shut, Kaoru came into the living room, biting into a steaming sandwich. She glared at Rei, and then waved to the professor as heading out the door.

---

Momoko and Kaoru were facing away from each other, angry for no reason. Miyako stood between them, looking down at the floor.

"Hey girls." Three familiar voices said at the same time. The three girls looked up and saw Boomer, Brick, and Butch standing at the bottom of the hill. Miyako smiled and waved to Boomer. Momoko blushed when she saw Brick. And Kaoru quickly turned her head to the side once she saw Butch. As the three girls approached the boys, Boomer pulled out a flower from behind his back and handed it to Miyako. Miyako was shocked at seeing the adorable sunflower. She thought it even looked like it was smiling.

"Thank you, Boomer." She said, smiling.

"Aww, how sweet! That is soooo cute!" Momoko said, gently touching a petal of the flower. She looked up at Boomer. "Wow Boomer, I'm surprised. That was so sweet of you to give Miyako a flower." Boomer shrugged.

"It just reminded me of her." He said, slightly blushing.

"Bleh…" Kaoru said, sticking out her tongue. Butch approached her, and tried to look into her eyes.

"What's the matter, Buttercup? _Jealous_?" he said, smirking. Kaoru clenched her fists and dug her nails into her skin. Since she refused to go to anger management when her classmate suggested it (and beat him up later), she tried to control her temper. It didn't always work, though. Everyone stared at Kaoru and Butch.

"Let it go, Kaoru." Momoko warned. Kaoru unclenched her fists and breathed out. She walked past Butch. The girls started walking forward. "Eh…" Momoko whined. "It's so _cold_. Since when is fall so cold?" she asked no one in particular, and started rubbing her arms through her sweater.

"You're cold?" Brick asked.

"Yeah." Momoko looked up at him. Brick then unzipped his long hoodie, and took it off. He handed it to Momoko, standing in a regular t-shirt. "Aren't you going to be cold?" Momoko asked, surprised by what a true gentleman he was.

"Nah. Take it, you need it." Momoko picked up the hoodie, and pulled it over herself. She put up the hood, and stuck her hands in her pockets.

"Wow. It's so _warm_. Thanks." She smiled at him, then noticed that the other four were already far ahead. "Ah! Miyako, Kaoru! Ho-hold on!" She yelled, running after them. The four stopped and glanced back, waiting for a few minutes while Brick and Momoko caught up. While running, Momoko would glance at Brick, who would glance back at her. Momoko blushed, and ran to her friends.

"Are we forgiven?" Brick asked.

"Yeah, Kaoru said something about working to be forgiven. Is this enough?" Butch chuckled.

"I still don't know whether I believe your whole 'it wasn't on purpose' thing. But you guys are practically begging, and you're acting a lot kinder than you were before." Kaoru said suspiciously.

"So you guys may not entirely forgive us, but instead of enemies, can we start off as friends?" Boomer asked.

"Friends? No. You're not our enemies now… right?" Kaoru asked.

"Enemies as in 'taking over the world'? No." Brick replied.

"I wouldn't mind being friends with you guys." Momoko said.

"Putting the past behind us may not be such a bad idea…" Miyako thought out loud.

"There's no way I'm gonna be friends with you guys." Kaoru said coolly. The boys just stared at her. "But acquaintances… maybe." Kaoru walked in front of the group.

"Is she alright?" Brick asked Momoko quietly.

"Yeah, she just has trust issues." Momoko giggled. "But even for Kaoru, acquaintances is a big step forward."

---

Nobody noticed a girl with bright black-purple short hair and neon-pink zebra glasses stare out the window. Rei closed the window, because of the coldness. She chuckled to herself.

"Now tomorrow," she paused, glancing back at the window. "Now tomorrow let's see Kaoru tell me my predictions weren't correct." Rei said, walking upstairs to her guest room in the laboratory.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	6. Thoughts on Love

**Reunited**

**Chapter 6: Thoughts on Love **

**Note: Removed all the Jap. slang. I think. Tell me if there's more! :)**

After the boys walked the girls home, they stopped by a park and sat on the bench. Boomer leaned back, with his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, and let himself absorb the autumn sunlight. Brick just stared at the floor, his facial expression unreadable, and plugged in an iPod headphone into his ear. He put it on shuffle and just stared at the floor, trying to focus on his thoughts and drown out the sounds of little children running around and talking. Butch took Brick's empty headphone and put it in his ear to listen to music. Unlike Brick, Boomer and Butch weren't doing anything. But Brick was thinking. But what he was thinking about, he wasn't sure himself. He thought of everything, his school, his class, and what had happened in the last few days. A few days ago, they pulled the prank which caused the girls to trust them even less. Brick was trying to remember Momoko's reaction, but the exact words did not come in his head. That day proved at lot to everyone. It proved how the RowdyRuff Boys had changed. Sure, they had kept their group name, but they weren't like that anymore. After the prank, Brick and Boomer attacked Butch for his stupid idea. Butch was a troublemaker by heart, but after the black light left him, the evil left, but the mischievousness remained. Butch always had stupid ideas to play pranks on people, but not the kind that caused anyone to get hurt. That day though, the boys overused their power. They were still strong, but nicer. The PowerPuff Girls, on the other hand, hadn't changed much.

"Hey Brick," Butch said, taking the headphone out of his ear. "What's up? You're thinking about something."

"It's nothing." Brick sighed. "I'm just trying to forget _that_ day." Brick replied. As soon as he mentioned the day, Butch, the "toughest" of the RowdyRuff Boys, winced. He couldn't forget how much Kaoru hated him now. Boomer, hearing the word, squinted his eyes together, as if he was trying to keep the image from getting into his head. He apologized already to Miyako, but he felt like he needed to apologize more. Boomer stood up and started walking in the direction of his home-- Mojo's old lair. Brick and Butch stood up and followed. They knew it just as well as Boomer did—Boomer was affected the most by that prank.

Mojo's lair looked better than it did when Mojo was in charge. The boys cleaned it up and repainted it. They looked through the house for old items and then sold them in a garage sale. From that money, they were able to buy paint and cleaning supplies. Living in a disgusting house wasn't as fun as it was a few years ago. Today, the house looked like a regular little house. As Boomer entered, he took off his shoes and placed them at the wall. He ran up the stairs, and into his room, with his walls painted blue. Brick did the same, and ran into his red room. Butch took off his shoes and walked into the kitchen, grabbed a sandwich, and proceeded upstairs to his green room.

After a few hours of watching TV, Brick escaped outside. He just wanted to go somewhere to think alone. At home, it would never be quiet. He felt like Butch's and Boomer's voices were inside his head, listening to every thought, commenting on each one. Brick quietly stepped out the door, so no one would know he was leaving. The second he was outside his house, he ran. He ran slowly—well, it was slow for him. This was the fastest he could run and still look like a regular human. If there weren't witnesses everywhere, he could have beaten a cheetah in a race. After a few minutes of running, Brick stopped, and breathed heavily. He walked slowly, and thought about only one thing.

Brick walked around the perimeter of the school. His iPod headphones were deep in his ears, and he was trying to get his own voice, with a few others, out of his head. After he finally remembered the exact words, he tried to forget them. Nevertheless, he kept rewinding the scenes from that other day.

"_Get lost, Brick!"_ "_You won't _dare_ do anything to us Brick!" _ "_Still like you?! We never liked you in the first place!"_ "_That wasn't a kiss! We had to do it to stop you!"_ "_Don't you guys know when to end a joke?!"_

Brick shook the voices away. But they kept coming back. This time, the voice was his own. Each word, his own words, jabbed him like they had pointed edges.

_Why did I do that? How come I wanted to know if they like us anyway? I never cared about Momoko before. In fact, before I wanted to kill her. And now… Before, I wouldn't have let her go so easily. But also, before I would have run away from a kiss or anything more, not threaten her about it. What happened to me? I know the RowdyRuff boys have changed, but this is ridiculous. I would never love my own enemy._

_Wait. Did I just say love? Hell no. That can't be. Is she my enemy anymore? We're not villains anymore. But… she is my ex-enemy. What do I do? How come I always paid the most attention to Blossom than to any other PowerPuff when I was a villain? Is it because of our colors? Is it destiny? Is it fate?_

_I sound so freaking gay right now. It can't be destiny. I'm just her opposite. When Mojo made me, I was made with black chemical Z DNA. And she was made with white DNA. It doesn't matter if the black light left me-- somewhere deep inside; I know that it hides in a corner. We're opposites. Yin and yang. Black and white. Sun and moon. Day and night. Fire and ice. I can't hurt her by letting my black matter destroy her, even if it's only a single black particle. But why am I worrying over _her_?_ _I'm not falling for her, am I?_

_I can't believe I'm falling for a PowerPuff Girl. Especially my opposite; Kaoru. I'm supposed to be tough and rough. And now I like my former enemy? _

Butch lay on his bed, hands behind his head, facing the ceiling.

_So what? Our color is green. Doesn't mean I should _like _her. But I can resist. Her hair, her eyes, her attitude. Even though she's tough on the outside, she's nice on the inside. She can blush, just like any other girl. But she is different from every other girl. She hates me. And I don't know if I can handle that. What made me stop being a villain? Was it that kiss? Did something in that white-light kiss change us to be normal boys? Neutralization?_

_Kuso… I'm supposed to be tough and crap. I'm supposed to be the toughest of the RowdyRuff Boys! And now I sound all lovey-dovey like some stupid girl. Kaoru would hate that… Wow, I sound so corny right now. If anyone else heard me, I would probably be beat up._

_Yet I'll admit something to myself:_

_On that day, pinning her down on the floor and waiting for the kiss… I really did hope she would kiss me._

Boomer did not notice Brick escape from the house. After he was tired from drawing, he stood up. He hid his sketchbook under his mattress, so Butch or Brick could not find it. He walked past the closed red and green doors, and quietly went down the stairs. Boomer left the lair and stood at a bus stop, waiting for a bus to take him to his only quiet place—the library.

Boomer sat in a library pretending to read a book. He took out a random book and skimmed the words, but didn't understand what it was saying because he was too busy thinking about something else.

_I really like her… Why? Miyako, or Bubbles, or whatever her name is, she is the object of my attention. But does she know that? Or does she think that I'm just giving her so much attention because I'm still sorry for that day? Ugh… I still am sorry. I have to make it up to her. Even though I apologized already, it's not enough. I can feel it—she still thinks I wanted to hurt her. I feel like I'm obsessed. She invades my every thought, every dream, Even though she's so clueless, why do I have feelings for her? I really like her. It's a weird feeling. It's like…death. It won't stop until it swallows you whole. _

_She'll have no idea about my feelings for her. I have a feeling she won't notice. I can't believe I actually hurt her on _that_ day. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't want to hurt her; I was just trying to follow Brick's and Butch's orders. If I didn't, my face would become pudding. And now she hates me. I guess I was stronger than I thought, after the black light left me. Or maybe she was just weaker. I can't stand her hating me. It's ripping me apart._

_Why am I like this? Is it ok for me to like her? Butch and Brick might disapprove, but what do they know about love? They can tease me all they want. Whatever. They're the only ones that will know, anyway. I hope they can keep their big mouths shut. _

_Wait, rewind… Did I say love? As in LOVE love? I didn't, did I? But the main question is: Do I like her as a friend? Or something more?_

After Boomer was finished "reading" books, he returned home on a bus. There, Brick sat on the couch, watching TV, and Butch was asleep in a big chair, snoring loudly. Boomer sat down to Brick.

"You were thinking too, weren't you?" Brick asked Boomer, whispering.

"How did you know?" Boomer replied.

"I know you well enough, bro. I'm pretty sure I know what you were thinking about." Brick said, putting his feet up on the coffee table. Boomer thought for a minute, and stood up. As he was walking upstairs he said

"Give me three guesses, and I'll guess what's on your mind as well."

Brick sat downstairs until midnight, and then went back to his room. As soon as he turned off the living room lights, Butch sat up, awake and confused. He looked around and noticed that he was on a big, poofy chair. He concluded that he feel asleep while watching TV with Brick. Butch sat back down in his chair, and quickly fell asleep, waiting for morning to come so he could see Kaoru again.

When morning came, the boys rushed out the door for the bus. Boomer pulled Butch out of the house, who was still sleeping nine minutes ago. Brick ran out the door, and so did Boomer, grabbing Butch's shirt collar and dragging him along. The boys reached the school about a minute before the late bell rang, and ran upstairs to their classroom. The second they sat down, the bell rung.

"Well boys, just on time!" Ms. Beane said, smiling. Brick sighed and went to hang up his jacket. Miyako, Kaoru, and Momoko were watching from their seats in the back. Miyako waved when Boomer turned around, and he waved back. Butch winked at Kaoru, who gagged. Brick and Momoko exchanged glances and blushed. Ms. Beane turned around to write the homework on the board. Suddenly, a thousand little notes were thrown in the direction of the RowdyRuff Boys. Most of them were pink and had hearts on them. The boys looked confused and picked up the notes.

"Ugh… love notes…" Kaoru said, gagging for the second time in five minutes. Kaoru saw the writing on some notes. They said things like _'Omg! I luv u Brick!_' or _'Butch, ur sooo hot! Will u go out w/ me?_' or _'Boomer u r 2 cute! Can I b ur gf?!' _and crap like that. Ms. Beane turned around and noticed the mountain of notes.

"Who made this mess? Who wrote these notes?" Ms. Beane demanded. None of the girls picked up their hands, only giggled and whispered to one another. Ms. Beane walked up and took a single note from the floor.

"Boomer, I believe this is for you." She said. Then she handed another note to Brick, then one to Butch... "Boys, I think all of these notes are for you. Please sort them out yourselves. I have a class to teach." The boys stuffed the notes into their backpacks. As soon as the lesson was over, the boys dumped the notes into the trash can. The boys approached the girls.

"So, Kaoru," Butch said, approaching Kaoru, who turned away. "Were any of those notes from you?" Kaoru resisted the urge to kill Butch.

"No! Stupid!" she exclaimed. "None of those notes are from me!" Brick, Boomer, Miyako, and Momoko stared at Butch like he was an idiot. Was he _trying_ to start a fight with Kaoru? The four of them left the room, and Kaoru tried to leave as well. As she started to leave, Butch grabbed her arm.

"Why do you hate me so much?" he asked, neither smiling nor frowning. Kaoru though for a moment.

"Because…" she said, turning around to face him. "Because you're so annoying! What do you want from me? A blow job?! Get a life, Butch!" she yelled.

"I don't want anything from you. Except…" he paused, thinking. "A wrestling match. Let's see who's stronger."

"You're so random. Why would I wrestle you?" she asked.

"Because if you win, I'll stop bothering you."

"And if you win?"

"I'll decide later."

"Okay! Bring it on!" Kaoru said, smirking. "I'll be in PPGZ form."

"No problem. My house, 5:00 pm."

"Mojo's lair, ne?"

"Yeah."

"I'm really looking forward to seeing you lose!" Kaoru smirked as she ran out of the classroom.

_Wait until she hears my prize. I hope she's ready for it. _

Kaoru caught up with everyone, as did Butch. Miyako and Momoko were walking together, whispering and giggling. Boomer and Brick looked at Butch.

"Finally! My gosh, Kaoru! You're so slow!" Miyako exclaimed.

"Whatever…" Kaoru said. The six of them walked into Math class. Miyako sat down next to Boomer, Kaoru sat next to Momoko, and Butch sat next to Brick. Halfway through the class, Boomer passed a note to Miyako. She opened it up and read it.

_Hey Miyako, do you want to go to this café I know? It's really good. We can go after class._

Miyako read it over once more, and smiled. She nodded at Boomer, who gave a thumbs up. Near the end of the period, the teacher let her class walk around and talk to their classmates. She sat down in her chair, reading a teacher's magazine. Miyako went next to Momoko and Kaoru, and Brick sat down next to Boomer. As the girls were talking, they were unaware that Butch heard their every word.

"So, what was that with you and Butch?" Momoko asked.

"It was nothing. We just have a wrestling competition. If I win, he stops bugging me." Kaoru replied coolly.

"And if he wins?" Miyako asked.

"He won't. But he says he'll think about his winning prize." Kaoru said.

"How do you know he won't win?" Momoko asked again. "He's pretty strong."

"Not strong enough. I'll be in my PPGZ form." Kaoru said back. "Let's drop this topic."

"Ok." Miyako replied. "Boomer asked me to go with him to a café after school." Miyako was acting pretty excited.

"Wow! Which one?" Momoko asked.

"I don't know. He'll take me to it." Miyako was blushing.

"I think the tarot predictions are coming true!" Momoko squealed.

"Hah. Yeah right." Kaoru said, a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Besides, nothing happened to you."

"I know…" Momoko said. "Hey, what kind of guy is your 'type'?" she asked Miyako and Kaoru.

"One who's strong. And not annoying." Kaoru replied.

"One who's sweet, and has a sensitive side." Miyako said. "What about you, Momoko?" Momoko thought for a minute.

"I don't know. I don't think there are any guys that actually like me, except for that boy in eighth grade. Looking back, he wasn't anything like I would have imagined a crush like. But I guess I just fell for him because I'm naturally attracted to any boy who likes me." Kaoru stared at Momoko, who was looking down at the floor.

"What about 'hard to get' guys?" Kaoru asked. "Or do you want every boy to just fawn over you?"

"I don't like guys that are 'hard to get' because it seems like they don't like you, and then there's no point in chasing after them." Kaoru nodded, and so did Miyako. The bell rung, and the three rushed out of the classroom. Brick and Boomer followed them, while Butch thought for a minute.

_Wow. Now I know what really goes on in girl's heads! I've made a move, and Boomer, the wussiest one, has made a move. And Brick didn't. I guess I'll have to give him a little push._

Outside during lunch, Butch told the boys about the conversation.

"Face it Brick. I took the next step and so did Boomer. Why didn't you?"

"Maybe that's none of your business." Brick said, scratching his head through his bright orange hair.

"There's not that much time left." Boomer said. Brick looked confused.

"Over the summer, Momoko became a real hottie. Think about how many guys are trying to get with her!" Butch explained.

"So? What do I do?" Brick said.

"We know you like her." Boomer said. "Why not ask her out or something?"

"I'm not ready yet. This is the first time she's seen the pure me. And I'm falling for her." Brick replied. "Think of it this way, two years ago we wanted to kill them." Hearing this, Butch and Boomer fell silent.

"Whatever. Just tell her you like her soon." Butch said.

"Why?" Brick asked.

"Because. I overheard the girls talking. Momoko said she'd practically fall for any guy that likes her. If another dude has more guts than you and asks her out first, you'll have no chances. Butch said, as Boomer and Brick listened.

"I'll think about it…" Brick said.

"By the end of this week? We're only trying to help you." Boomer said. Brick sighed and walked to the basketball court. He was shooting hoops by himself until Butch and Boomer joined.

After school, Miyako and Boomer walked outside together. They walked to the café together, still carrying their backpacks. Once they reached the café, Boomer opened the door for Miyako. They walked in together, and took a spot on a soft cloth sofa near the windows. Miyako sat down next to a small blue table, and put her backpack on the couch. Boomer walked up to the cashier and ordered two hot chocolates. He paid and sat down next to Miyako.

"This is a nice café. What's it called?" Miyako asked, sipping her hot cocoa.

"The Midnight Café. It's my favorite." Boomer replied.

"Why did you call me here?"

"I just wanted to apologize…"

"But you did already!"

"I don't think it was enough." Miyako was shocked at how much he wanted to be forgiven. Miyako put a hand on Boomer's knee.

"It's alright. I forgave you." Miyako looked into Boomer's eyes, blue eyes staring into what seemed like their own reflection. "I was nothing huge. Just a bruise." She tried to convince him, even though she made a fuss about it herself. After a minute of awkward silence, the two started talking again. Before long, Boomer stood up.

"Where are you going?" Miyako asked, confused.

"I have to leave. I'm sorry. I have to cook dinner for Brick and Butch." Boomer put on his sweater. "Bonkuras… don't know how to take care of themselves."

"Oh, ok then." Miyako said, a little disappointed. Boomer left the café with his backpack and hot cocoa. Miyako waved to Boomer, who waved back to her. The second Boomer was out of sight, Miyako sighed and took out a book from her backpack. She made herself comfortable on the sofa and started reading.

Miyako was still sitting on the sofa in the Midnight Café, reading a romance novel while sipping her hot cocoa. She took a sip, turned a page, and kept reading to herself.

_Raymond walked up to Kaylie and sat down next to her. He put his big, muscular hand over her scrawny shoulder. _

"_Kaylie," Raymond paused, looking into Kaylie's deep blue eyes, "I think, I think…"_

"_What do you think?" Kaylie asked, looking into his strained eyes._

"_I think I'm in love with you." Raymond said quietly._

"_Oh Raymond! Do you really mean it?" Kaylie asked excitedly._

"_Yes. I want to know if you like me the way I like you."_

"_Of course I do! I've been waiting five years for you to say that!" Kaylie exclaimed. Raymond looked at her, and Kaylie looked up at him. She leaned closer, and so did he, until their lips touched. Kaylie put her arms around Raymond's neck slowly and Raymond--_

Miyako snapped the book shut. She didn't feel right, reading this romantic part. It felt like she was there, staring at the two characters, watching them make out. She sighed, put the book on the coffee table and took another sip of her hot cocoa.

_This is so fake. Real people aren't like that. Real people don't go 'Oh Raymond!' and then start kissing. I wonder what real love feels like. In the stories it sounds so easy. Like in a snap you can fall in love. In a second you can break up with someone. In a blink of an eye you can confess your love for someone. I know it's not true._

_That day… The day they threatened us and pinned us down… Did Boomer want to hurt me? Did he care if I fell to the floor? Or did he just not notice how much pain he caused me? Did he want to do this prank or did he just have to follow Brick's or Butch's orders? He tried to apologize, but people can easily lie. I wonder if he really wanted to hurt me, or if the pain he caused me was just as big for him. _

Kaoru was in Yamamato Park, playing soccer on her team. The ball was passed to her, and Kaoru kicked it towards the goal. Surprisingly, it missed.

"Kaoru! Keep your head in the game!" Coach yelled.

"Sorry Coach!" Kaoru yelled back.

"Ey Kaoru! What's with you?" a teammate yelled.

"Mind your own business!" Kaoru exclaimed.

"This team is our business!" another yelled back.

"Yeah! At this rate we'll lose by a landslide." A boy next to her said.

"Shut up, idiot!" Kaoru replied. Kaoru walked to a bench and plopped down. She took her mini towel and wiped the sweat off her face. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, letting herself think.

_That day… Butch scared me. He was way to close to me, and he pinned me down. Down to the floor… it was really weird being so close to him. I have never really been physically close to a guy before in this way. Tackling another player on the soccer team is different from this. _

_Why do I feel weird? It's definitely not love. It's confusing. And then there are their auras._

_Their aura changed colors? Last time we saw them, they were completely black. And now they're lighter! Not only that, but they also change with their mood. What the hell? _

_What's really weird is the way that they were staring at us. Brick was looking at Momoko in a way like… like the way a brother looks over his baby sister. Except… maybe it's more intense than that. And then Boomer was looking at Miyako like she was a precious flower. And Butch…_

_I was looking at him like he was a space alien. Or my worst enemy. But the way he was looking at me? I can't describe it. It just felt unusual. My stomach froze, and I got goose bumps. Why?_

As soon as soccer practice was over, Kaoru ran into a dark alley and transformed. Buttercup headed towards the lair, ready to wrestle Butch. She flew to the house, landing on the doormat. She wrung a bell, and no one answered. She twisted the door knob and pushed the door. As she stepped in, something leaped on her, knocking her down to the floor on her butt.

"Bastard! We didn't even start yet!" Buttercup exclaimed.

"Well, we're starting now. No weapons." Butch smiled, also sitting on the floor.

"Where?"

"On this carpet." Buttercup looked around. No one was home. She stood up and dusted her uniform. As soon as Butch stood up, he was knocked back onto the floor. Buttercup was standing with a smug look on her face.

"Exactly!" Buttercup yelled out. "Don't underestimate me!!" Butch seemed surprised at the sudden attack.

"So competitive…" he mumbled to himself. "so, let's begin." Butch jumped up and faced Buttercup. In a few minutes, they were already sweating. Buttercup had Butch in a headlock. He managed to flip her over. Buttercup was on the floor, stomach down, with Butch hold her wrists behind her back. Buttercup managed to kick Butch off then tackle him. Butch was on the floor, with Buttercup's hand on his chest, trying to hold him down.

"Three…two…on--" but Buttercup was interrupted when Butch knocked her to the floor, and rolled on top of her. Buttercup looked vulnerable as her wrists were pinned down by Butch's hands. Butch was on top of her, and had a pretty familiar expression.

_Butch was pinning me down on the grassy lawn on the school campus. In the distance, I could hear Momoko shouting at Brick. Butch's dark green eyes were focused on mine. I stared at him, hoping I would have some sort of ray gun built into my eyes. Butch was grinning, in a dark way. They said it themselves—they wanted a kiss. I would shout at them to tell them there was not a single chance for them to makes us kiss them. Yet I was afraid to open my mouth, knowing Butch would take that chance and quickly lean in for his lips to touch mine. I bit my lips, hoping that this would stop before they actually have the guts to do anything. _

In a second, that memory lunged into Buttercup's brain. She understood what type of smile this was. She knew what he wanted.

"Two… one! I win!" Butch stood up, happy. Buttercup tried to understand what just happened. Then she realized. She was thinking about Butch's expression the whole time instead of focusing on getting him off.

"No! You ch-cheated!" She exclaimed.

"How? I played by the rules." Butch protested. "It's not my fault if you were focusing on something else." Buttercup realized he was correct. She sighed.

"Alright. What do you want?" she asked. Butch smiled, and Buttercup was scared for a moment.

"A date."

"What?! Forget about it!" she yelled out.

"Those were the rules, Buttercup. I win, I get what I want. You win, and I'll stop bothering you. If you don't agree, then you're the cheater, not me." Buttercup sighed.

"Whatever. When and where is it?"

"_La Renaissance_." Butch said, trying to keep himself from laughing.

"But don't people need to dress fancy to go there? Like wear suits and dresses…" Buttercup gasped. "No way. I am not!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry! That's the deal. But I'll make it fair—you can pick out your own dress." Buttercup growled.

"Thanks for your permission, bitch." She said sarcastically.

"Hey, watch the language, babe. Who knows where this date will lead." Butch winked.

"Don't call me babe!" Buttercup said, sounding furious. She headed towards the door.

"Tomorrow, seven o' clock!" Butch called out. Buttercup left the house with a slam of the door.

Momoko was lying on her windowsill. It was wide enough for her to sit comfortable, a pillow behind her back. Her wide windows were open, but the window net was closed, locked in place, allowing the soft wind to blow in her face, but keep her from falling out. Of all the things she had to worry about, she picked one. And as she was thinking about that one subject, she fell asleep, her dream reflecting her thoughts.

_Brick pulls a strand of hair from out of my face. He says to me, slowly and calmly, _

"_Blossom, you look really cute like that." I blush and try to hide my face with my hair. He puts his hands over my shoulder. I blush even more. Then it occurred that I did not say anything._

"_Thanks… Brick. You look cute yourself." He lifts an eyebrow at me, and I quickly add "Not in a girly way, but in a boyish way… I guess it's that band-aid on your cheek." I'm such an idiot. I can't say anything right. We sit like that for a minute, his hand around my shoulders, and my head on his chest. I am so close to him, I can hear his heartbeat. It has a slow and steady pace, unlike mine. Then, he lifts his hand and puts it under my chin. He brings up by head gently to his, and he bends down. Our noses are a centimeter away. He puts his hands on my shoulders. I'm a deep scarlet now, because I know what he wants to do. He brings his head closer to mine, and when his lips are a centimeter from mine, he says_

"_Kiss me?" I lean closer and our lips meet. My head is telling me "Blossom, you idiot! Pull away! Pull away now!!" But I drown out that voice, because…_

_This time it was a suggestion, not a command. And I was more than willing to accept._

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	7. New Feelings

**Reunited **

**Chapter 7: New Feelings**

Momoko quickly sat up from her seat. She looked around. She was sitting on the windowsill, her favorite pink pillow behind her back. She felt cold and hot at the same time. She was hot from her sleep—it made her sweat. The cold came from the window. A chilling breeze blew in Momoko's face. She looked at the window, realizing it was night. She leaned back, realizing she was asleep longer than she thought. Momoko let out a sigh and closed her eyes. What a weird dream. She was sure that if Kaoru or Miyako had seen what was going on in her subconscious head while she was sleeping, they'd laughed. Momoko swung her feet off the windowsill and onto the floor, gripping onto the edge for balance. She felt a little dizzy from her sleep. Or was it because of the dream?

"Eh… what a weird dream." Momoko said to herself, rubbing her eyes. She stepped into her Choco Cat slippers and walked to her mirror. She closed her eyes for a half second, but that was all it took for the dream to flood back. She opened her eyes quickly, looked at her reflection. Her cheeks were bright pink, and her forehead was dripping with sweat. Momoko wiped off the sweat with her shirt sleeve, and plopped onto her bed. It was late, and it was a weekend the next day. Her nap wiped away her sleepiness though, leaving her wide awake. She tried to forget the embarrassing dream but it kept coming back. "Since I'm not sleepy at all, maybe I'll just take a flight through the city." Momoko said to herself, her fingers on the compact, ready to push it. "But maybe… it'll bring attention to the lab and Miyako and Kaoru. I don't want them thinking there's trouble when there's not." Momoko lifted her fingers off the compact. "I'll take a walk instead." She said, standing up. Momoko combed her hair and pulled on her boots. She ran out of her room quietly, making sure not to wake up her sister. She checked the time on her cell phone. A quarter to ten. Maybe Kaoru and Miyako weren't busy? She dialed Miyako's number. After a minute, it went straight to voicemail. She tried Kaoru's cell phone. Kaoru picked up.

"Ello?" Kaoru asked. "Momoko? What's up?"

"Are you busy right now?" Momoko asked.

"No… I'm not. Why?" Kaoru asked, sounding a little skeptical.

"I'm bored. Let's go somewhere." Momoko replied. "I wanted to take Miyako too, but she's not picking up."

"Miyako? She's right here with me. We're at my apartment. We wanted to invite you over, but you didn't pick up your phone."

"I was sleeping. Why didn't she pick up her's?"

"Hold on. I'll ask her." In the distance it was easy to hear Kaoru ask Miyako. "Her battery died. Come on; get your butt over here now." Kaoru turned off the phone. Momoko smiled and was thankful she had such great friends. She left a note on the dinner table for her mother to see when she returned from her dinner date with Momoko's father and ran off.

Momoko took the bus to a street near Kaoru's. Once she stepped out of the bus, she walked past a few stores until she saw something that caught her eye through the window glass of a store. A pair of shoes. Momoko knew well. They definitely weren't her style, or Miyako's style. Miyako would want something a little less… noticeable. Momoko would want something a little _more_ noticeable. But these shoes were perfect; just in the middle. The shoes were a stunning, rich black color, with high heels. _Very_ high heels. The heels were pretty thin, about as thick as Momoko's pinkie, and they looked as if they were at least four inches tall. The shoes were open-toed, with a strap for above the heel of the foot. They had no flowers of bows or anything frilly. The shoes had a big buckle on each side, with lacy straps to tie around the ankles. Momoko suddenly realized-- _they would look perfect on Kaoru._ "Ah, Momoko! What are you thinking!" she spoke to herself, shaking her head, trying to wipe away the crazy thought. "Kaoru would probably tackle you for even suggesting something like that! Besides, where will she wear it to?" Momoko walked past the store. Suddenly, she turned around and ran back to the window display. "But maybe…" she said, with an inappropriate grin on her face. "I'll put in a gift receipt!" Momoko ran into the store, which surprisingly, was still open, even at such a late time. She scanned the aisles for the shoe type, then Kaoru's shoe size. She grabbed the box, made sure the shoes were inside, and ran to the cash register. She took out her credit card and handed it to the cashier, who scanned the box and swiped the card. "Gift receipt please!" Momoko asked. The cashier printed out the receipt, as she was taking out a plastic bag, Momoko told her she didn't need it. "Arigato!" Momoko yelled, rushing out the door.

"Thank you, have a nice day." The cashier said, surprised by Momoko's agility. Momoko ran out of the store, box in her hands.

Momoko ran up to Kaoru's apartment and run the doorbell. She quickly rushed up the stairs, and knocked on the door, panting from running so fast. Kaoru opened the door slowly, a finger on her lips.

"Shh, Momoko! My younger brother is sleeping."

"Sorry…" Momoko said.

"What's that?" Kaoru asked, noticing the box.

"Oh, let me come in first." Momoko said, handing the box to Kaoru. "Don't open it yet." Momoko took off her shoes, put them near the wall, and walked in. She saw Miyako sitting on the couch, and plopped down on it. Kaoru studied the box.

"What is it?" Kaoru asked confused. Momoko didn't reply, only tried to catch her breath. Miyako stood up and walked towards Kaoru.

"It's a shoe box." Miyako said, recognizing the company. She didn't even bother mentioning the name of the company, knowing Kaoru would not care at all.

"Can I open it now?" Kaoru asked Momoko. Momoko nodded. Kaoru opened the box and peeked through the tissue. "EH?! What's this?!" Kaoru demanded, holding the strap of one shoe between two fingers.

"I thought it would look good on you, Kaoru." Momoko said, smiling. "Try it on!"

"No way! There's no possible way I'm trying those shoes on!" Kaoru yelled.

"Why? We're curious!" Miyako said, pouting.

"Hell no!" Kaoru said, even though she was curious herself.

"Well then, the receipt's in the box." Momoko said, a little disappointed. Kaoru plopped down on the couch with her two best friends, thinking about what to do with the shoes while Momoko and Miyako talked between themselves.

Kaoru skated from her apartment to her karate dojo, her karate bag slung over one shoulder. She had the shoes that Momoko bought for her yesterday in the bag, with the receipt. She was planning to give back the shoes before practice. As she skated on the sidewalks, she passed a window display in _The Pink Jaguar_. She abruptly stopped her skateboard and stared at the display. A dress. But it wasn't just another dress. It was so _beautiful_, yet not in an elegant way._.._ Kaoru envisioned herself wearing the dress, and it looked… amazing. The dress was short; slightly above the knees. It was a darkish green color, with no shoulders. The shoulder straps joined at the collar bone with a little silver circular brooch, and merged into one big strap that tied around the neck, leaving the back bare. She knew the color would match her eyes completely. But, a dress? That's the last thing she wanted to buy right now, knowing that a dress was exactly what Butch wanted on her. Kaoru fought her stubborn urge to pass the store, but finally went inside. She tried on the dress in the dressing room, with Momoko's shoes still in her soccer bag. The dress looked _perfect_ on her, emphasizing her hips. She turned around, and even admitted to herself that this was the only time she would ever look good in a dress. She remembered about the shoes, and took them out of her bag. She slipped them on, tying the straps a few inches below her knees. The shoes looked great with her athletic, slender legs, and made her taller. Even though, she would be an inch or two shorter than Butch. She slid out of the heels, planning to keep them after all. Kaoru put the shoes back into her bag. She slid out of the dress, and put on her regular clothes— wide black cargo pants with a tight plain white t-shirt. She put on her grey combat boots and tied up the black shoelaces. She slipped on her black arm warmers, with the dress in her arms. Kaoru approached the cash register, and put the dress on the counter. She paid the cashier, who folded the dress and inserted it into a bag. Kaoru stuffed the bag into her karate bag and left the store.

While reading a manga book at huge bookshop in the city, Momoko was also licking a bright purple lollipop. She sat on a little chair at a table in the book store, reading the book she had just bought: _Fruits Basket, Vol. 18_. Momoko did not notice when a tall boy walked up to her.

"Hello, Akatzutsumi-kohai." Momoko looked up, startled at the greeting. As she looked up, she realized it was a boy from her school, a junior.

"Hello, Toyama-senpai." Momoko was surprised that such a handsome and popular boy was talking to her.

"So, Momoko-chan," the boy said. Momoko was even more surprised at this, that he addressed her in such a familiar way. "I was thinking… would you like to go to a movie later this week?" This surprised Momoko the most. Such a handsome, popular upperclassman talking to her? It must be a dream come true. He didn't seem to notice her last year, but now he was. Momoko quickly spit the words out of her mouth.

_Say yes! Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!_

"Sorry, I can't." Now Momoko just surprised herself. Did she really just decline this one-in-a-million chance? She wanted to say yes, but she said no instead? How could that happen?

"Why not?" the boy asked, frowning a little. Momoko decided that since she already declined, she'd better give a reason.

"Uh… There's someone else…" Momoko said, trying to lie but realized it was half true. There _was_ someone else.

"Oh. I see. In that case, I'll see you later, Akatzutsumi." With a wave the boy left. She still couldn't believe it. Five surprises in less than a minute. 1) Toyama-senpai actually talked to her. 2) He was being familiar with her, even though he never spoke to her, or even noticed her before. 3) He asked her out. 4) She _declined _him. 5) The "lie" she said was actually half true.

Kaoru was sitting at home, staring at her hairy legs. She was in really short shorts, with a soccer tee on. She was sitting in the bathroom, with shaving cream and a razor on a low shelf. Before, she didn't care how hairy her legs were. She would wear shorts, her leg hair exposed, in soccer practice. She would threaten anyone who made a comment about it. In other words, she was quite proud of her tomboyish legs. But today was different. Today she would have to wear a short dress for her date, and hairy legs seemed revolting when mixed with such an elegant outfit. In fact, once she thought about it, hairy legs seemed gross on her. But shaving cream and a razor? She had never done it before. Other girls started doing this when they were thirteen, about the same time when worrying about their appearance and if that guys likes them and when they will have their first kiss… And on and on. That was most girls. When Kaoru was thirteen, she didn't give a rat's ass about this stuff. It seemed like crap to her. But considering the fact that she had never gotten a "first kiss" before, and this was her first date, and she had never worried about shaving her legs, this was important. She was fifteen. Technically, she was behind by two years. Kaoru carefully picked up the shaving cream and read the instructions. She dampened a towel, then smoothed it over her legs, to make them wet. She put the shaving cream over her legs, smoothing it out. She crinkled her nose at the disgustingly sweet smell of "Raspberry Rose". She picked up the razor, and tried to make sense of what to do.

After she was finished, she decided she was doing quite well of a first-timer. She had gotten on four minor nicks. The thirteen-year-olds were getting many more cuts on their first times, right? Kaoru put some Neosporin over the tiny cuts. It was six o' clock, and she had to get ready. Kaoru walked into the room, loving the feel of her smooth legs. Kaoru slipped on her bra and her dress. She stared at her messy hair in the mirror. Kaoru squeezed out a squirt of smoothing cream, and then attempted to smooth out her hair a little. Once she was finished, she needed to decide what to do next. Maybe some deodorant. She dug through her karate bag to find it, and quickly put it on. Jewelry? No, her outfit was girl enough already. Then Kaoru realized that maybe she had some B.O. or something. Perfume? No, definitely not. Kaoru sprayed herself with some of her mother's body spray, one that smelled like artificial apples, thinking it was good enough. She tied up her lacy shoes and put on a sporty grey North Face jacket and left her apartment.

"Damn…" Kaoru said, while rushing down the streets. She didn't want anyone to recognize her. If someone, if _anyone_ even had the slightest thought that the girl running down the street in high heels and a short dress was Kaoru Matsubara, they would have to be executed, immediately. If someone knew, the word would spread, and then Kaoru would have to dye her hair, change her face, and move to Australia. No one will _ever_ find out about her date with Butch. As Kaoru approached the restaurant, she started to feel less fancy. There were many people standing outside the restaurant wearing fancy and expensive gowns and suits. She noticed a tall boy with a tuxedo jacket, white dress shirt and jeans on standing outside. The boy looked a lot like Butch. In fact, a little too much like Butch. Except with shorter hair. As Kaoru came closer to the restaurant, she finally realized it was him. "Butch?" she asked, looking completely puzzled.

"Yeah?" Butch turned around and smiled when he saw Kaoru. "You look great."

"Uh… thanks. You too." Kaoru said, trying to catch her breath. "Your hair--- it's… it's shorter…" Kaoru said, trying to understand.

"Yeah. I cut it. What do you think?"

"Looks like Taylor Lautner's hair."

"Who's that?"

"The guy who plays Jacob Black in _Twilight_. Only his real hair, not the wig he wore for the movie." When Kaoru said this out loud, Butch looked completely confused.

"Twilight? You actually went to see it?"

"Miyako and Momoko dragged me along with them." Kaoru explained.

"Let's go inside?" Butch asked. Kaoru nodded, and followed him inside the restaurant.

Kaoru noticed how beautiful the restaurant was. It had that antique look, with gilded picture frames displaying paintings of people who were apparently rich and looked pretty snooty. The tables were circular, with gold satin-type tablecloths, and with an ornate vase filled with _real_ flowers as a centerpiece. Kaoru and Butch took their seats as a waiter came to their table and handed a menu to each of them. Kaoru decided she was pretty hungry, until she saw the menu.

"WHAT?! Thirty dollars for a salad?! Fifty three for a steak!?" she yelled out, though the noise from the rest of the restaurant made it seem much quieter than expected.

"If you don't like it, we can go somewhere else." Butch said. Suddenly, Kaoru felt guilty. She knew that it must have been tough for Butch to arrange this dinner.

"No… It's okay." She said quietly, sinking back down to her seat.

"Really? Cause I think this place is too boring." Butch said, scratching his head.

"But wasn't it hard for you to make a reservation?" Kaoru asked.

"Nope. This place is a lot less fancy than it seems."

"Then what about the dresses and suits…" Kaoru asked. Butch let out a laugh.

"I made that up only to see you in a dress." As soon as Kaoru heard these words, her first reaction was to leap across the table and tackle Butch. But she just gripped the table until it was close to breaking.

"What about your suit?" she asked in a fake-calm voice, straining not to show anger in her voice.

"Didn't you notice? I'm wearing jeans, not a suit bottom."

"If you wanted to see me in a dress, all you had to do was ask!"

"Nope. You would have disagreed. Besides, this way was more fun." Kaoru was furious. She was ready to tear up Butch into millions, no, _billions_ of pieces. All of the work she did, and for what? Butch unbuttoned his suit jacket, and put it behind his chair. He un-tucked his shirt and unbuttoned some buttons on his shirt collar, and loosened his tie. Now he looked casual, while Kaoru was still looking fancy, and in a dress. Butch stood up and put his jacket over Kaoru's shoulder. He took her hand and pulled her up from her seat. "Let's go?" he asked. Kaoru said nothing, but followed him. She was too angry to speak. She knew that the moment she would open her mouth, a billion curses would escape. Butch noticed Kaoru's mood. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"_What's the matter?_ I look like a freaking frilly princess! I'm wearing a _dress_!" she yelled out, attracting the attention of other people nearby.

"You look good in it." he said, smiling.

"That's not the point."

"Well, this is my prize for winning the wrestling match. A date with you in a dress."

"We've just left the restaurant!"

"We're getting pizza instead."

"How is that a date?"

"I'm sorry. You know so much about dates?" After Butch said this, Kaoru stopped and blushed. She knew nothing about dates, and she knew that. After they stopped to get pizza, Kaoru and Butch sat down. They talked, and before she knew it, Kaoru realized that Butch was actually really nice. Well, he seemed like that.

"Hey Kaoru, let's go out next week." Well, there goes the "nice" thought. Kaoru knew what he wanted. He was just trying to get to her. But still, part of her wanted to go see him next week.

"Isn't it a little too early for that?" she asked.

"Not really."

"I'm not sure…"

"Then let's flip a coin." Butch said, pulling out a coin from his pocket. If heads, it a date. If no, then I'll just see you in school.

"Fine." Kaoru said. It was starting to feel a little awkward. Butch flipped the coin, but it fell on the floor. Kaoru leaned down to get it, but fell on the floor as well. While trying to pick her up, Butch toppled over her. Both of them sat on the floor, laughing at the incident. Then Kaoru remembered: the coin. Kaoru stood up and leaned down to pick up the coin. She put it on the table before she could see what it said. Butch and Kaoru both stared at the coin. It landed on…

Tails. Kaoru could still remember the coin landing on tails and how she and Butch stared it. Now, Kaoru was at the laboratory while Momoko, Miyako, and Rei were watching _Next Top Model_. Kaoru could still feel the disappointment dwelling inside her. For some strange reason, Kaoru wanted to see Butch again. The date was okay, but it was being with him what made it so great. Butch had shown his other side, his more innocent side. Or was he faking just to get her to like him? Kaoru wasn't sure about this. But she was sure about this: there was some new feeling inside her that she didn't know she had.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	8. Love Education

**Reunited **

**Chapter 8: Love Education**

Momoko packed her school supplies into her neon-pink backpack as the bell rang. Focused on shoving her over-sized binder into her crammed backpack, she jolted up when she bumped into another person.

"Ah, sorry..." She mumbled, not bothering to take her eyes off her desk.

"Wow, well someone's in a rush to get out of the classroom." Momoko quickly looked up. She knew that sweetly sarcastic voice behind her... She blushed as she twirled around to face him.

"Brick? Yeah... what's up?" She had forgotten that Brick was in her Geometry class. Or at least she had tried to forget him, and succeeded.

"Nothing, really. You seem..." Brick paused, thinking of the right words to describe Momoko.

"Stressed? Freaked out? Nervous?" Momoko surprised at how easily she was able to talk with Brick.

"Er... yeah. What's wrong?" If Momoko would've been talking to Kaoru or Miyako, she would spill everything. What was wrong? 1) She had an extremely weird dream about Brick the other day. 2) Was Rei's tarot prediction coming true? 3) Her heart was almost certainly thumping at an extremely fast rate at this very moment and 4) She had not understood a word the teacher had said in Geometry class (which was currently the least of her problems.) But seeing as she was talking to Brick, she only mentioned her math troubles.

"Um... well you know the _huge_ exam we have coming up later this week?"

"You mean the quiz?"

"Oh yeah... that... thingy." Momoko laughed nervously. _Quick, think of an excuse!_ "My mom said anything below an 80, and I'm grounded from candy and cake for a month. Well, it looks like I'm sugar-free for the next 30 days..." _STUPID! That was the worst excuse I've ever made!_ Brick smiled.

"Well lucky for you," Brick said, grinning, "I'm great at math."

"Oh wow. Thanks for not rubbing it in. That definitely made me feel better." Momoko said with a sarcastic, but not mean, tone in her voice. Brick scoffs.

"What I'm saying is..." Brick paused nervously. _This is my chance! Seize this opportunity! _"...Is that I can help you study. You know, prepare you for the quiz." Momoko looked surprised and happy at the same time.

"Wow, really? That would be great! Thanks, Brick!" Momoko smiled and giggled, barely containing her excitement.

"No problem. So, where? When?"

"Um... your house, I guess. My parents are... weird about boys." Momoko looked away nervously.

"Sure." Brick looked kind of uneasy too. "So is today fine?"

"Yeah, great."

"So then it's a date." The words had escaped from Brick's mouth before he could realize what he said. _I have the IQ of a peanut... Seriously, what was I thinking!_ Momoko looked kind of nervous. "Um... I meant study date... not like a date-date." Brick laughed nervously.

"Yeah... I got that... Well, see you later then." Momoko quickly turned around and waved goodbye before running off to her next class, her cheeks flushing. Brick just slapped his palm into his forehead.

Momoko ran to her next class as fast as she could. As she waited the day out, it seemed to get longer and longer. As nervous as she was talking to Brick a few minutes ago, she still wanted to see him more than anything. As soon as the last bell rang, she darted off, leaving Kaoru and Miyako confused.

"Momoko! Waiiiiit!" Kaoru ran after her. Momoko turned around quickly, stopping in her tracks, as if she just realized she had ditched her friends. Miyako ran up to them a few moments later.

"Why are you in a hurry? Where are you going?" Kaoru asked. She paused for a second, and her eyes lit up and she grinned. Momoko knew that face. The _Evil Face_. "Maybe you've got a date with _you-know-who_?"

"What! Of course not!" Momoko protested by instinct, but then she realized that what Kaoru has said was actually half true. Momoko sighed.

"It's... a study date." Kaoru jumped up in the air, shouting loudly.

"HELL YEAH! I'M RIGHT!!!!" Several students eyed Kaoru suspiciously. Kaoru glared back at them.

"No! It's not a date! He's just helping me study! It's strictly educational!"

"Yeah, yeah." Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Well what are you waiting for? Go there already!" Momoko hesitated.

"Well, it just occurred to me that..."

"Yeah?"

"That he might not be home yet." Momoko played with a strand of her hair, hoping that Kaoru would accept her excuse.

"Nonsense," Miyako said giggling. "He's right there." Miyako pointed to Brick standing at the corner of the block, chatting with a few classmates. "If you guys walk home together, you'll get there at the same time."

"But we're not wa-" Before Momoko could finish protesting, Kaoru pushed her towards Brick. Momoko stumbled, but caught herself before she fell to the floor. She glared at her friends, which giggled.

"Don't you think they look cute together?" Miyako said sweetly.

"Maybe..." Kaoru said slowly. "But not as cute as you and Boomer!" Kaoru grinned.

"What? No!" Miyako looked around her. "Keep your voice down, Kaoru!" Kaoru only chuckled. "And you and Butch look pretty adorable too."

"WHAT! Take that back! Don't you ever dare say something as stupid as that!" Kaoru's cheeks flushed.

"As stupid as what, babe?" Kaoru's cheeks became an even darker shade of pink when she heard that voice.

_Speak of the devil._ "None of your business, Butch." Kaoru turned around. "And don't you dare call me 'babe'."

"Why not babe? Embarrassed after our little date?" Butch showed an evil smile.

"Date?" Miyako looked confused.

"Date?" Boomer repeated, just as confused. Kaoru's face turned into a blood red color, both from anger and humiliation. She threw a punch straight at Butch, but he caught it. Effortlessly.

"I'll explain our little romantic meeting to you guys later." Butch chuckled. "But right now, I have a better idea." He looked over at Momoko and Brick, which both seemed to be blushing as they chatted and walked down the block. As the four gathered together, Butch proposed his idea.

Butch, Boomer, Kaoru, and Miyako trailed behind Momoko and Brick, stalking them.

"I don't know guys, I feel bad about this..." Miyako said. "Do you really think we should be following them?"

"Shush! This is too interesting!" Kaoru said.

"Oh yeah!" agreed Butch. The green team high-fived. Boomer, on the other hand, seemed just as uneasy as Miyako.

"Guys, maybe we shouldn't be doing this..." Miyako said uneasily.

"Come on, Miyako! Have a little fun!" Kaoru said.

"It's not that... It's just that... well, look for yourself." Miyako pointed up at the sky, which had some grey clouds coming in. Everybody looked up.

"No problemo, we'll get home before it starts to rain. Besides, I'm sure it's just a little storm." Kaoru said, walking forward.

"I don't know, Kaoru. The weather forecast said there's a chance of a thunderstorm." Boomer didn't take his eyes off the sky.

"T-thunderstorm?" Miyako said slowly, but her voice still shaking.

"Look, how far away they are. The storm probably won't start until, like 10." Kaoru said, still walking forward.

"I guess you're right..." Miyako ran up to Kaoru. Butch started walking forward again too.

"Come on, Boomer! We have a lovely little couple to spy on!" Butch yelled, still walking forward. Boomer kept his eyes fixed on the sky for two more seconds, and then ran to catch up with the group.

Momoko and Brick reached the steps of the house.

"Mojo's lair?" she asked, remembering all the times they would kick the evil monkey out of sight.

"Yep. He created us after all. But we redecorated. It's not as... gross as it used to be." Brick pulled out a key from his pocket and opened the door. "Welcome to our home." He smiled as he opened the door. Momoko gaped as she saw the house. It was definitely better than what they saw two years ago. The living room had a big sofa, right in front of the huge TV, with two big chairs at the sides, and a coffee table in front of the sofa. There was a spiral staircase leading upstairs. And the kitchen was... clean. _Definitely not gross._

"It's so... nice... and clean.... and... wow..." Momoko's voice trailed off. She took off her shoes and dropped her backpack. She approached a PS3 near the television. "Where'd you guys get the money for this stuff anyway?"

"We just sold Mojo's old crap." Brick took off his shoes and went upstairs. "Come on, study time."

"Right." Momoko grabbed her backpack and ran upstairs. Brick opened the door to his room. The walls were painted red, and his bed was facing the door. Across from the door was a big window, overlooking the city. And a window seat, with a pillow to sit on. He had a small desk cluttered with folders and papers, and a small computer in the middle. The room was _clean_. "Nice room." Momoko said, not knowing what else to say.

"Thanks." Brick started to walk out the door, and then stopped. "Do you want any tea? Cake?" Momoko's eyes lit up.

"No thanks... I'm fine." Momoko gulped, imagining a delicious piece of cake, waiting for her to eat. _Don't think about cake. Study! You have to study!_

"Really? Even Strawberry Vanilla?" This offer Momoko was unable to resist.

"Ok. You got me. Cake is my weakness. Especially the strawberry kind." Momoko plopped down on the bed. A minute later, Brick came upstairs, holding a slice of cake. Momoko dove for the cake, but he moved it away in time. "Hey!" she exclaimed.

"You get a bite of cake for each answer you get correct." Brick said, grinning. "Unless you'd like a bite of me instead." Momoko hit him with a pillow. Brick laughed, sat down on his bed, and took out his notes. He moved over to make room for Momoko. "So what do you need help with?"

"Um... everything?"

"Wow. You really _do_ suck at math, don't you?" Momoko hit him with a pillow again. "And I thought nerds were supposed to be smart."

"I'm not a nerd! I just study a lot. And math just... frustrates me."

"Because you're used to knowing everything?"

Momoko sighed. "I guess."

Half an hour passed, and the cake was untouched. Momoko was staring at the her notes, unable to blink. But it wasn't geometry that was on her mind. She stared off into space, hearing Brick talk about some geometry things, but she didn't hear the words. She didn't recognize the symbols. The only things she knew were that she was in the same room as Brick. In his room. On his bed. But they were studying.

"And so, the Pythagorean Theorem is...?" Brick asked the question, hoping Momoko would at least get this one right. Momoko did not answer, only stared blankly at her notes, thinking to herself. "Uh, hello? Earth to Momoko?" He waved his hand in front of her face, and she jolted up.

"Oh! Sorry!" She scratched her head. "What was the question again?" Brick sighed.

"You're not listening. You'll definitely be cake-free for the next month if this keeps up." Momoko giggled.

"You sound like my geometry teacher."

"At least I don't _look_ like him." Brick and Momoko laughed together. Brick put his hand down on the bed, leaning on it, when he noticed it touched something soft. _Momoko's hand._

Their hand touched for about ten seconds. Momoko blushed and pulled her hand away by an inch. But then, Brick's hand caught hers. They stayed like that for half a minute, staring at each other. brick let go, and both quickly pulled away.

"Uh... yeah... well... the Pythagorean Theorem is a rule for... uh… right triangles..." Momoko grew more nervous by the second, and she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked at her notes and gulped, her cheeks flushing.

_What am I doing?_ Both thought at the same time. And neither had an answer.

The other four entered the house.

"Well, nice going, Boomer. If we hadn't stopped for smoothies, we wouldn't have lost them!" Butch said accusingly. Butch dropped his backpack loudly on the floor.

"Aw come on..." Kaoru said. "It kinda got boring anyway. They just acted all... stupid." Kaoru looked around the house. "Nice place."

"Yeah... whatever." Butch plopped down on the couch. Kaoru took off her shoes and sat down on the floor and turned on the TV. Miyako and Boomer looked at each other and shrugged. They sat down next to each other on the couch. Brick opened the door from upstairs and trotted down to the living room. Momoko followed.

"I thought I heard someone come in. What are you guys doing here?" Brick asked.

"What do you mean, man? We live here, remember? Or are you to focused on your date to remember you have two other guys living with you?" Butch said sarcastically, and sipped his guava smoothie.

"I mean the... girls." Brick said back.

"Your retarded cousin' suggested we stalk you and Momoko as you walked home." Kaoru said.

"Butch, you really are retarded, aren't you?" Brick said, chuckling.

"Wai- Hey! What makes you think it's me? How do you know it wasn't Boomer?"

"Lucky guess." Brick replied.

Boomer laughed. "I'm too innocent to suggest something like that." Butch stuck his tongue out at Boomer.

"Ha ha. Yeah, you're _definitely_ the good one."

Brick sighed. He turned to Momoko. "I guess study session's over."

Momoko nodded. "Ok. Thanks for tutoring me, I guess. Though I only got a bite of cake."

"My offer still stands."

"Huh?"

"Feel free to take a bite of me." Brick grinned mischievously.

"Nah, I'd rather take the cake." Momoko laughed and gently touched his shoulder as she headed downstairs.

"That's what they all say at first." Brick smiled at his own joke and went downstairs with Momoko.

"Listen up, guys." Butch said loudly, from his seat on the couch. "And girls... I guess. I have an idea."

"Wow, another great idea?" Kaoru said sarcastically. "Because your ideas _always_ turn out perfectly."

"Shut it." Butch said lazily. "Anyways, since we're all here, why don't we have a little game night?"

"What kind of games?" Miyako asked.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough." Butch answered, with what looked like an evil smile.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	9. Game Night

**Reunited**

**Chapter 9: Game Night**

The six of them sat on the brown carpet in the living room, listening to Butch as he spoke. Kaoru sat cross-legged in her white tank top and black soccer shorts. Momoko sat near Kaoru, playing with her hair, twirling it around her fingers. Even though she was in jeans and an orange camisole, she was still warm. Miyako was leaning against the sofa, clutching her knees, in her cute white blouse and blue skort. Butch was leaning on the coffee table in his yellow t-shirt and jeans. Brick was on his left, in a muscle-tee and jeans. Boomer was sitting on the left of boomer in a blue t-shirt, white jacket, and jean shorts.

"First things first." Brick said. "If we're going to play the games, we'll be split up into groups of two. The Red Team, Green Team, and Blue Team. Obviously we know who goes with who." Everyone nodded. Momoko scooted towards Brick. Butch pulled Kaoru closer to him. And Boomer sat down near Miyako.

"Why do we need to do this? What games are we playing?" Kaoru asked, trying to sound indifferent even though she was scared to ask the question.

"I'm guessing all the fun ones. Truth of Dare, Would You Rather, etc." Boomer answered.

"Strip Poker, Naked Twister" Butch added. Kaoru punched his shoulder. "And let's not forget Spin the Bottle." Butch added mischeviously, but seriously.

"I'm out." Kaoru said. "If there's Spin the Bottle, count me out."

"Why? Little Kaoru is afwaid of a wittle kiss?" Butch said, mocking Kaoru, who hit him in return. "I mean, it's not like this will be your first kiss or anything, right?"

"What?! Of course not!" Kaoru replied, blushing. Momoko and Miyako exchanged uneasy glances. They both knew for a fact that what Kaoru said was 100% false.

"Then it's not as if it would matter to you, right?" Butch said, grinning.

"What?! A kiss is still a kiss! I wouldn't do something like that!"

"Sounds like something coming from someone who hasn't had their first kiss yet." Butch taunted Kaoru, just adding more fuel to her raging fire.

"What about two years ago? When we defeated you?" asked Momoko, who stepped up, afraid if Butch pushed Kaoru any further.

"I thought you guys said that wasn't a kiss." Boomer replied.

"Yeah, I mean, after it, it was just an _air _kiss." added Brick, who was smiling.

"Look, nobody is kissing anybody, alright?! No _Spin the Bottle_!" Kaoru shouted at Butch.

"Fine." Butch sighed. "We're voting. All in favor of Spin the Bottle, raise your hands!" Butch's hand shot up, and it was the only hand in the air. The rest just stared at him.

"Bastards." he muttered. Butch sighed again. "Then let's start with Truth or Dare." Butch pointed to Kaoru. "You first. Truth or dare?"

Kaoru was about to ask why he had picked her first, but she was too tired to argue anymore. She was about to say truth, but she knew what Butch was going to ask. "Dare." she said bravely. But as soon as the word left her mouth, she knew she was going to regret it.

"Oh really?" asked Butch, leaning toward Kaoru. "Pretty brave, aren't you? Alright." Butch paused. "I dare you to... play Spin the Bottle!" Kaoru hit Butch again, even harder.

"Baka! We voted that we wouldn't play that!"

"Fine. But here's the rule to our Truth or Dare: you refuse a dare or refuse to answer a question, and you take off one piece of clothing." Butch grinned.

"What!?" the three girls shouted together.

"When did we decide on that?!" Brick and Boomer shouted in unison. Momoko just shook her head.

"There is no way we're doing that." Miyako said.

"But I sorta agree with Butch." Boomer said. "When the three of us played Truth or Dare together, the penalty was being punched. But the strip-thing that he just thought of right now is _not _ happening. And there's no way we could hit you guys... after what happened. There has to be some sort of penalty."

"A kiss?" Momoko asked. Everybody looked at her. Kaoru glared. "I mean, it's not as bad as stripping or punching, but let's face it, we don't really want to kiss each other, right?" Momoko knew the words she said were a complete lie. She did want to know what it was like to kiss Brick. To feel his lips on hers. But there was no way she would kiss him now, at least not in front of the other four.

"Speak for yourself." Butch said, as he pulled Kaoru closer. Kaoru sighed. She really was too tired to fight back. But what made him think that after a date, they were suddenly a couple. _Chill, Kaoru. He's just joking. Don't overreact. _But Kaoru and everyone else knew, that even what Butch said was a joke, it was partially true.

"But yeah. That's a good idea. Perfect penalty." Butch said, seriously this time. Momoko regretted suggesting the idea. "But I guess I can't dare you to play Spin the Bottle. How about a rematch?"

"Huh?" Kaoru asked.

"You know, wrestling match?" As soon as Butch mentioned this, Kaoru's eyes lit up. She was waiting for a chance to kick his butt. The only reason he won before was because she got distracted. She remembered what happened earlier that week.

"Hell yeah! You're on!" Kaoru shouted. "I won't let you win this time!" Butch laughed.

"Let me win? You lost because you got distracted."

"I'll beat you to a pulp. In PPGZ form of course." Kaoru added.

"Fine." Butch moved over as Kaoru stood up and moved back. She pressed her belt and transformed.

_Powered Buttercup!_

Buttercup stood above Butch, looking at him from below in her green outfit. Butch just studied her from head to toe.

"Wow. You look great in a skirt." Butch snickered. Buttercup's cheeks flushed from anger and embarrasment as she realized that Butch had a full view of her panties. She quickly sat down. "You guys look really cute when you transform." This time, all three girls blushed. Butch stood up. "Ready, _Buttercup_?"

"Ready to beat you." She stood up again.

"What's my prize?" Butch asked.

"Excuse me?" Miyako asked.

"If I win, I'll get some sort of prize. Last time it was a date." Butch explained. "This time, how about... a kiss?" Butch joked.

"Yeah. You can kiss my fist." Buttercup replied, clenching her fist and holding it up right in front of Butch's face.

"I've got one!" Brick exclaimed. "If Butch wins, Kaoru has to call him 'master' for the rest of the day." The girls stared at Brick. "You know... like a maid?"

"That's perfect!" Butch said. He looked at Buttercup, who just stuck out her tongue.

"If I win, you are not allowed to say another flirty or perverted thing for the rest of the day." Buttercup said.

"Deal."

"Deal."

"Ok..." Momoko said. "Start on 'Go'."

_3... 2... 1... Go!_

The green team was battling each other, Buttercup's hands pushed Butch's shoulders. Butch was trying to push her back. Butch's strength won over Buttercup's, and they fell to the floor. Butch was on top, trying to pin her down. Buttercup kept trying to push him off. For a second, she won over and pinned down Butch. Butch was shocked at her strength, but he rolled back, and once again, Buttercup was pinned down. She pushed him off and jumped up. She pinned Butch down, with his face to the floor, and twisted his arms. Butch winced at the pain, but managed to kick off Buttercup, who flew to the other side of the room. Buttercup hit the wall because of Butch's powerful hit. She stood up and her eyes seemed to glow. _You're going down. _She raced towards Butch, who had just stood up, in hope of tackling him. But he moved away the second she was about to leap, and Buttercup tackled the air and fell to the floor. Butch had her in a headlock, and she desperately tried to push him off. But he was too strong. Buttercup managed to squeeze out and push Butch down, holding him down with both hands. _Shit! He's stronger than he was before! When we had our first fight, we were equal in strength, but now he's about twice as strong. Or was he going easy on me?_ Buttercup stared at Butch, her eyes meeting with his. The emerald eyes were locked on each other, and did not dare to move away. The other two girls watched silently as the two fought, but the boys cheered on Butch. But everything melted away. Buttercup focused on nothing other than beating him, not for the prize, but for her honor. Sweat rolled down her forehead, yet Butch seemed unfazed. Clearly, he was not giving 100%. Butch easily pushed her off, pinning her wrists down to the floor, his knees at her hips. Butch was grinning. He knew the fight wouldn't take much longer. Buttercup tried to push him off, but it was no use. She closed her eyes and gave up.

"Butch wins!" Brick shouted. Butch got up off Buttercup, who stayed on the floor, her eyes closed.

"Come one, my little maid. Get up." Butch smirked and sat down next to Buttercup.

"Urusai. I'm tired." Buttercup stood up, and transformed back to Kaoru. She sat down, crosslegged. "How the hell did you get so freaking strong?" she asked, wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Hm? Brick, Boomer, and I have a special bond. So when one of us needs extra power, we just borrow it."

"WHAT!? Zurui shita! You're only supposed to use your own power!"

"Who said?" Brick said. "We never agreed on that." Boomer shrugged. Kaoru growled.

"Yaro!"

"What was that, servant?" Butch leaned towards Kaoru, his hand to his ear. Kaoru put on a fake smile.

"Congradulations on winning, _master_." Momoko and Miyako knew how pissed she was.

"That's more like it." Butch grinned. "Yo red team, your turn."

"Well this should be interesting." Boomer said. "I guess guys ask the ladies."

Brick turned to face Momoko. "I guess so. Truth or dare?"

Momoko closed her eyes for a second, to think of the right answer. _Truth? Dare? Which one? _"Da-" she started to say, but quickly stopped herself. "Truth."

"Someone's a little scared? I guess you're not as brave as your friend." Brick smiled. "Huh... what would be a good question?" Brick thought out loud. "What was the best adventure you had as PPGZ?"

Momoko's eyes lit up. "That's an easy one! Time-traveling was probably the best."

"Hell yeah! Did you see how kick-ass we looked, even in the Edo era?" agreed Kaoru.

"The outfits were really pretty." Miyako added.

"Okay... I thought it would be more interesting, though. You know, like kicking bad guy butts." Brick said, a little disappointedly.

"Oh, we didn't leave before kicking evil's butt to the next millennium, of course. Now _that_ was awesome." Kaoru said, grinning and remembering the good times. "Oh, blue team. You're up."

"Sure." Boomer turned to Miyako. "Truth or dare?"

"Ano... D-dare?" The way Miyako had answered made it sound more like a question than an answer, to see whether she had made the right choice.

"Dare, huh? Are you good at singing?" Boomer asked, leaning toward her, looking to her eyes.

"I wouldn't really say th-" Before Miyako had a chance to finish, Boomer had grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

"Sing for us?" Boomer asked, thought it was more like a command than a question.

"Um... I don't really... um..." Miyako looked at her feet. She felt everyone's eyes staring at her. The room seemed to turn around her, and she couldn't make it stop. She seemed to be swaying side to side. She heard their voices, but they seemed to drift away, just like the rest of the room. She closed her eyes, and everything melted around her. And then she worked up the courage to sing.

_Himawari no hana utsumukanai de_

_Taiyou ni mukatte kokoro hiraite_

The others were amazed at the sound of her voice. So sweet, so pure, it sounded what each person thought an angel sounded like. Especially Boomer.

_Orenji iro no T shatsu sukoshi iro aseteta gogo ni_

_Koi wo shite mayotte naita mainichi ga ima nanto naku kasanaru_

_Itsukara darou eiga no you ni kakko bakari tsukete itanda_

_Himawari no hana ryoute hirogete_

_Mata tsuyoku naru tame kokoro hiraite_

_Jibun ni tsuita uso no kazu dake toomawari shita michi_

_Hiraita arubamu soredemo egao wa hikari ni mukatteta_

_Nando mo arau jiinzu to tomo ni tsuyoi kaze ni sakaratte ima_

Even though there was no music playing, Miyako's voice seemed to light up the room. Miyako had kept her eyes closed, so she was unable to see the others gape at her in astonishment.

_Himawari no hana mizu wo ageyou_

_Sukoshi tsukareta me ni sora wo utsushite_

_Himawari no hana ryoute hirogete_

_Teritsukeru hikari ni subete wo misete_

_Himawari no hana utsumukanai de_

_Taiyou ni mukatte kokoro hiraite_

Miyako's sweet voice drifted off at the end of the song. All five of them applauded. They knew she deserved it.

"Was it really that good?" she asked.

"Uh, DUH! That was beautiful!" exclaimed Kaoru, who ran up to hug her friend.

"I had no idea you could sing!" added Momoko. "That was... just amazing!" The boys would've showered her with compliments, but they were speechless. After they were created by Mojo, they saw few beautiful things in this world, because they were destined to only see and create pain and suffering. But Miyako's voice was one thing they had seen that was as beautiful as the world they lived in. And so, Boomer's heart opened up a little more.

After a few more rounds of _Truth or Dare_, followed by seven rounds of _Would You Rather_, the clock had ticked all the way to ten o' clock. After tea and desserts, along with some chatting and TV, it was already 10:43.

"Oh, shit!" Kaoru exclaimed. "Momoko! Do you see what time it is?" Momoko eyes darted to the clock.

"No way! My parents will kill me!"

"What is it?" asked Miyako, who stepped out of the kitchen, holding the second tray of tea and cake. "What time is i-- oh no!" Miyako nearly dropped the tray as she saw the time.

"Guys, sorry, but we gotta go." Kaoru said as she darted to her jacket and shoes. "See you tomorrow, I guess."

"What? Leaving so early?" asked Boomer, who turned his head around from his spot on the couch.

"Early? I'm _definitely _sugar-free this month!" Momoko said as she ran upstairs to grab her backpack. Boomer and Butch just shrugged. Miyako set the tray down on the coffee table and ran to Kaoru.

"Are you sure you guys want to leave _now_?" Brick asked.

"Duh! Do you see how late it is?" Kaoru asked, while slipping on her sneakers and jacket. She slung her grey and green backpack over one shoulder.

"Uh... that's why." Butch pointed to a window.

Miyako made her way towards the window. "What are you ta-" Miyako froze in place. Outside, it was completely dark, with no moon in sight. Greyish-black clouds covered the sky, and rain poured onto the empty streets. Trees were shaking from the powerful wind, and it's sound could be hear even from inside. A single bolt of lightning lit up the sky with a flash, and several followed. Miyako screamed and fell on her knees, covering her ears and closing her eyes. The loud roar of thunder made Miyako's loud shriek sound like a squeak.

"Miyako!" Kaoru ran towards Miyako, and so did Boomer, who jumped over the couch.

"what's wrong?" asked Boomer.

"It's the storm, she's been afraid ever since she was a small child." Kaoru turned to Miyako and squatted down. "It's okay, it's just a small storm." Kaoru said calmly, trying to soothe Miyako. Momoko heard Miyako's scream and trotted downstairs.

"This can't be good..." Butch said out loud, but quietly enough so Miyako didn't hear.

"What's wrong?" asked Momoko, who froze at the bottom of the stairs, here eye's looking less strawberry-pink and more blood-red.

"There's a storm in the area. It's suggested to stay inside." Brick said, who sat near Butch on the couch, watching the weather channel. He slapped his palm into his forehead. "Shit." Momoko ran to the TV and sat on the floor.

"Well, what the hell do we do?" Kaoru asked, trying to shout over the wind, rain and thunder.

"I guess you guys have to stay here. This looks bad." Boomer said, standing behind Miyako.

"What?!" Kaoru and Momoko shouted.

"I'm serious. There's no way that's safe." He pointed outside as a tree crashed to the ground.

"B-but... My parents! There's no way!" Momoko shouted.

"Momoko..." Kaoru said calmly. "I think they're right. You can try calling them, but I don't know. A cell phone in this weather?" As soon as Kaoru said 'call', Momoko zipped out her cell phone and texted her parents, Kaoru's, and Miyako's.

"But... where do we stay?" Momoko asked, quietly this time. Boomer walked over to all the windows and closed the blinds.

"You guys can take our beds." Butch said, grinning.

"Butch, _so_ not the time to be joking." Kaoru said, pissed.

"Who said I was joking? You guys will take the beds, and we'll figure something out."

"I don't think so..." Momoko said. Kaoru calmed down Miyako, who stood up, but with her hands still over her ears. She sat down on the sofa, leaned back, and closed her eyes.

Kaoru stood up. "I guess we'll take the couch."

"But it doesn't unfold or anything. It'll only fit one of you." Boomer answered.

"Do you guys have any sleeping bags?" Momoko asked. The boys replied by shaking their heads. "I guess... we'll take the floor."

"Whoa... that's not right!" Brick stood up. "As our honored guests, you deserve better than the floor."

"Honored guests?" Kaoru laughed. "More like prisoners." Momoko and Kaoru laughed together.

"Maybe my slave would prefer to sleep in my room?" Butch asked, suggestively.

"Keep dreaming, yar- I mean, _master_." Kaoru winced as she pronounced the dreaded word.

Boomer looked over at Miyako, who had already fallen asleep on the couch. Boomer ran upstairs and returned with a blanket and pillow. He gently lifted up Miyako's head and placed the pillow underneath. He covered her with the blanket, and sat down on the floor.

"I guess you two will take one of our beds, and Butch and I will share a bed." Brick suggested.

"Fine. But they take your room." Butch said, grinning. "I mean, you suggested it." Brick sighed. Kaoru started taking her shoes off again, and Momoko leaned back on the couch. Everyone stayed quiet for a few minutes, not because of awkwardness, but because of the hectic ten minutes that had just happened.

Momoko and Kaoru were sleeping on Brick's bed by midnight. Both were laying on top of the covers. Kaoru was facing the the wall, and Momoko was right next to her, facing the other way. Momoko was tossing and turning in her sleep, because she saw a sweetly familiar dream.

_"So what is the Pythagorean Theorem?" he asked me, not taking his eyes off his notes. I struggled to get the correct words in my head. It impossible; I was focusing on something else. His red hair looks so cute like that, so messy and wild. "Uh, hello? Earth to Momoko?" I looked up, and our eyes met. Pink and crimson, interlocked. I wanted to pull away, because I could feel the red-hot sensation burning in my cheeks. But I didn't dare to move my eyes an inch. They just stayed there, eternally locked with his. _

_I wanted to say something so badly; I couldn't bear the silence. But it wasn't uncomfortable-- in fact, it was the opposite. The silence was pulling me in, swallowing me whole. Actions speak louder than words, right? So I made my move. Slowly inching my hand toward his, he pulled away for a second, but then put his hand on top of mine, our eyes still locked on each other. I quickly looked away, knowing that he saw my face become entirely beet red. He tilted his head to meet my eyes again. And we both leaned closer and closer, until our lips touch._

_This sensation, this feeling! It's incredible. I just want to melt away in his arms. His strong, muscular arms-- one which was wrapped around my waist, and one behind my neck. Where were my hands? One was touching his hair, and one was draped around his neck and shoulders. We fell down together, our eyes closed, but our lips together._

Momoko woke up with a jolt. She checked the window. Still pouring outside. And dark. Very, very dark. She checked the alarm clack. _Dammit. 2:43 am? _Momoko was sweating, and she was unsure what the reason was: the extremely warm temperature of the house, or her recent dream? Memories flooded back to her. She tried to shake them out of her head, but it didn't work. The dream was etched into her brain, seared into her memory permanently, just like the _other_ dream. She wondered why: because the dreams were just so enjoyable, or because she didn't want to let them go? _Or both?_ Momoko licked her lips, and she realized that she needed a drink of water before she would sweat out all of the water left in her body, dehydrate, and shrivel up like a raisin. Momoko got out of the bed, holding onto the post for balance, as her sweet dream had made her dizzy. Momoko quietly trotted down the stairs in the clothes she wore to school the previous day, as she had no pajamas with her. As she walked down the stairs, she saw Boomer sitting on the couch, near the sleeping beauty herself-- Miyako. Boomer wore a small pair of glasses, and was in a light blue robe, and was holding a book. On the coffee table was a small lamp.

"Boomer?" Momoko rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing up so late?" Boomer quickly looked up.

"Oh... just reading..." he answered slowly.

"At 2:50 in the morning? What about school? Aren't you going to be super tired?"

"What about school? Did you see the storm? It won't clear up until around today evening." His eyes traveled back to the book. "Therefore, I can read without worry."

"Yeah, but why so late?" Momoko walked to kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. She walked back to the recliner chairs near the sofa and plopped down.

"Well, why not? Besides, I'm also looking after your friend here." Boomer gestured towards Miyako. "The storm really scared her."

"Yeah, I know." Momoko look a gulp of water. "She's sorta been a crybaby ever since eighth grade. But thunderstorms really scare her."

"We all have our weaknesses."

"Yup." Momoko took another sip. It was kind of hard to talk to Boomer, who was more focused on his book. "What are yours?"

"My weaknesses?" Boomer looked up at Momoko questionably. Momoko nodded. "I don't know. The boys weren't really designed with any weaknesses in mind." Boomer paused. "But thinking back, remember how you girls won two years ago, against us?" Momoko just nodded again. "Well then, I guess our only weakness would be... love." Momoko looked up at him.

"Love, that's awfully corny. I mean, all we did was blow a kiss."

"Yeah, I know, but it's just a theory. I mean, a kiss is a symbol for love, right?" Momoko didn't answer out loud, but just drifted off into her own thoughts. _I guess it is._

"So let me get this straight, you're the brains of the operation?"

"Mhmm. I just let Brick take all the credit." Momoko laughed out loud, and then sighed.

"Dammit... I'm. So. Tired." Momoko leaned back.

"Then go to sleep."

"If only it was that easy."

Boomer looked at Momoko. "It usually is. Insomnia?"

Momoko sighed again. "Nah, it's not that. I just can't fall asleep." Boomer sighed. "Wait... insomnia is... oh okay. Yeah, it's that thingy."

"What's up? What's bugging you?" Boomer asked. Momoko blushed and looked away. As if she could tell Boomer.

"Um... just some... girl troubles..." Momoko answered slowly, improvising her excuse.

"Wow, is it that time of month again? You did seem rather... strange today." Boomer laughed, and Momoko lightly threw a pillow at him.

"It's not _that_." Momoko sighed.

"You can tell me. I'm a great listener. That, and I love secrets." Boomer closed his book and looked at her. "Tell me."

"Forget it." Momoko picked up the glass of water and headed upstairs.

"Love?" Boomer asked. Momoko froze in the center of the stairs. She turned around and looked at Boomer.

"What makes you think that?"

"Lucky guess." Boomer sighed. "That and it's pretty obvious."

"What are you talking about?" Momoko laughed nervously.

"Don't play dumb. You know what I mean. And I have a similar problem. In fact, everyone here does."

"I have no idea what you're trying to say." Momoko turned around and headed upstairs.

"It's only natural, Momoko." Boomer said. Momoko stopped again. "We're created out of the DNA of the PPGZ. It's only natural that we are drawn to our colors, our creators."

Momoko let out a laugh. "Mojo was your creator, not us."

"We're drawn to each other like magnets. I know you can feel it. Everybody can."

"I don't know what you'r--"

"If you don't know already, you'll find out soon enough." Momoko turned around and headed to the bed without another word. But both Boomer and Momoko knew that what Boomer had said was true. She wasn't sure if everyone else could feel it, but she certainly could.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	10. The End of One Storm

**Reunited**

**Chapter 10: The End of One Storm, But the Clouds Are Still Not Completely Gone**

Miyako awakened in a big blue room. The walls were painted blue, and there was a desk at the end of the room, facing the window. A large bookshelf was in the corner. Covering her was a small, soft, blue-gray blanket. It took her a few moments to remember what the other day. And then she realized whose room she was is in: _Boomer's_. She plopped down on the bed as she remembered the flash of lightning and how she had freaked out. Miyako pulled the blanket over her face, trying to forget her embarrassing reaction. She then caught the scent of the blanket. It had a sweet smell, but not like flowers or anything. It just smelled sweet, a scent that could not be described. She wondered if Boomer actually smelled like this. She inhaled the scent once more, enjoying the fragrance. _What am I doing?_ She quickly pulled the blanket off her head and blushed. What _was_ she doing? Miyako heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned to the door.

Boomer walked in, one hand in his pocket and one scratching the back of his head. He came up to the bed and squatted down, now at eye level with Miyako. "Sleeping beauty, how are you feeling?"

Miyako smiled and looked away at the joke. Or was it a compliment? "Embarrassed." she admitted.

"We all have our moments. At least you didn't, like, faint." Miyako nodded. "What's up with the lightning anyway? Why are you so scared?" Boomer tried looking deep into Miyako's eyes, as if he were trying to see through her pupils and into her brain to know what she was thinking.

"I was just scared ever since I was a child."

"Yeah, I know that. I used to hide under the bed when I first created." Boomer laughed. "And that's how I earned the nickname 'Babyface' or 'Crybaby' from Butch and Brick."

"Me too. I'm always scared over the smallest things, so Kaoru calls me a crybaby as well." Miyako paused and looked towards the window, seeing the gray clouds that had been tattooed onto the sky. "As a child, I have been extremely terrified of thunderstorms. Especially the lightning part. I would hide wherever there was space; under the bed, in the closet..." She paused and Boomer nodded, encouraging her to continue. "And on the day Chemical Z was created, there were white and black lights flying all over the city. The three of us got hit by the white light. And Mojo got hit with the black. When I saw a ray of lighting heading towards a little girl, I quickly thought it was lighting. But I jumped in front of the little girl anyway; worried that she might get hurt." Boomer was looking at Miyako, wide-eyed.

"So even though you thought it was lightning, you jumped in front of the girl anyway?" Miyako nodded. "Wow... that's really unselfish. And ever since that moment, you've been even more terrified of lightning?" Miyako nodded again. "Wow. I sort of get it now. When you see lightning, you imagine that it will hit you right? It looks like it is aiming at you?" Miyako swallowed and looked away. She nodded, again. "Well then, that's no 'crybaby' to me. You really do have courage; to protect the people you care for. Which is why you're one of the protectors of Tokyo City- you care about the citizens." Miyako didn't know what to say to Boomer. She just looked into his eyes.

"Thank you." she said, and smiled.

"I'm only telling the truth."

"No, for taking care of me yesterday." Boomer looked away, trying his hardest not to blush.

"There's no need to thank me..." The two sat in an uncomfortable silence. "So, let's go downstairs?" Boomer stood up and offered Miyako his hand. Miyako smiled and accepted it, and pulled herself out of bed.

* * *

Rei woke up in the lab's guest room. Her hair was a mess, and she struggled to find her glasses on her desk without her, well, glasses. As soon as she had found them, she walked up to the mirror, and patted her hair down. Professor and Ken were probably sleeping, even though the two were the biggest workaholics she'd ever seen (like father, like son), even they took a day off every once in a while and slept in "late", which for them meant past their usual 5-6 am. She grabbed her PPGZ belt and slipped it over her white t-shirt and light blue pajama pants. She had made it a personal responsibility to be _always_ ready, even if it was eight o' clock in the morning. She never knew what could happen, and when it could happen. School was cancelled today, because of the storm. She trotted downstairs into the living room of the mansion-like lab. She flung herself on the couch and took out the purple "P" button from her belt. She called Momoko.

"Hello? Rei?" Momoko answered from the other line.

"Yep. Hey, can you call Kaoru and Miyako and tell them to come down to the lab when they're ready? I didn't bother calling them right now, I was afraid they were sleeping, and I do _not_ want to imagine Kaoru when she first wakes up." Both girls laughed.

"Nah, she's awake."

"Oh? How do you know?"

"She's right here with me. And so is Miyako."

Rei paused. "Sleepover?"

Momoko paused to answer. "Yes." she said slowly. "More or less. Anyway, we'll go over there as soon as possible."

"'Kay." Rei reached for the remote, but stopped herself when a better idea popped into her head.

* * *

The three girls walked into the lab, and saw Rei sitting on the floor, cross-legged, in what seemed like meditating. A circle of candles surrounded her. Rei's eyes were closed, and she was sitting in her white t-shirt and pajama pants, sitting on a small rug.

"Uh... Rei?" Momoko cautiously said her name, afraid to wake Rei from her trance. Rei did not respond, and just sat there. "Rei?" Momoko said again, this time lightly poking her shoulder. Rei jolted up, just as surprised as the other three girls.

Rei let out a chuckle. "Sorry. Meditating is great in the morning. The wonders it does for you..." Rei stood up and stretched.

"Up to freaky stuff again?" Kaoru asked. Rei let out a laugh, but did not answer her question.

"The reason I asked you guys to come here was because... well I wanted to talk to you guys." Rei sat on the couch, cross-legged again.

"About what?" asked Miyako, sat down near Rei.

"Well... it's about yesterday."

"Hm?" Momoko looked confused.

"Uh... well... Kaoru, you transformed yesterday, right?"

Kaoru hesitated to answer. "Yes... it was for a... dare... during our... sleepover." Kaoru said the sentence out loud. What she said was 100% true. She never said the three of them were the only people there.

"Oh... okay." Rei looked down at the floor.

"Is that it? Is that why you called us here?" Kaoru seemed annoyed.

"No. I have a few more questions."

"Well...?" Momoko asked.

"Well, I had no idea why Kaoru's belt went off, so then I checked your location using the GPS in the belt, and it noticed that all three of you were in the same area. So I was confused until you explained to me the sleepover."

"Stalker." Kaoru muttered quietly. Rei shot a glance at Kaoru.

"This is serious. On the GPS, the three of you are represented by dots of your corresponding colors. And the GPS only shows the three of you, which are represented by dots of your corresponding colors, the Professor, Ken, and Peach, which are represented by white dots, and it used to show monsters, which were represented by black dots. The GPS tracks anything with Chemical Z or anything that was hit by the rays. We also programmed Ken and the Professor Untonium into it. But yesterday, as I checked the GPS..." Rei paused and opened up the belt button. On it were 3 small dots- pink, light blue, and light green. And three more- red, dark blue, and olive green. The three girls blushed. _Busted._ "We didn't program anything else in there. And by the looks of it, I'd assume it was the Rowdyruffs?" The three girls nodded.

"We got stuck at their house during the storm." Momoko said guiltily, feeling bad about lying to Rei.

"And we had to stay overnight." Kao added, looking at the floor. "So technically, it _was _a sleepover."

"We're sorry for lying." Miyako looked at Rei. Rei just shook her head.

"It's not about the lie."

"Huh?" Momoko had blurted out. But Kao and Miyako were just as confused. "It wasn't?"

"No. It's about why the boys' dots were on the GPS. Think about it, they had never directly touched Chemical Z, and when the monsters disappeared, we had only assumed that all of the black light was stored inside_ Him's _box. After the box exploded, the rays flew all across town, and I was the only human hit. Or at least I thought so." The three girls gaped at her. "I don't think Professor Utonium would have a specific reason to program them in. If they're appearing on the GPS, I believe there's only one reasonable explanation."

"They were hit by the white light too?" Momoko could not believe what Rei had just said.

"I'm still not sure whether they were hit by it or not, but it's definitely an idea. I'll have to investigate this further."

"Um, Rei? Too much Detective Conan can be bad for you, you know." Momoko pointed that out. Rei looked at Momoko.

"Don't spoil my moment. There are few times that I actually sound smart, and this is one of them." Rei turned back to the other girls. "Anyway, I have another theory as for how they got the white light inside of them."

"Hm?" Miyako seemed interested.

"The kiss?" Momoko had suggested the first thought that popped into her head.

"Bingo." The three girls just stared at Rei.

"B-but it wasn't even a real kiss! It was an air kiss!" Kaoru protested.

"But you defeated them with that one air kiss. It was powerful enough to really affect them. So it must be pretty damn powerful. Not the kiss itself, but mainly the action. It caused them to malfunction and slowly start to lose their black particles. It wasn't light energy straight from you, but that kiss triggered a feeling which started to produce more light energy and lose the black energy." Rei pushed her glasses up higher.

As Miyako and Momoko were trying to understand Rei's scientific analysis, Kaoru had already figured it out. She knew the answer, yet she asked the question anyway. "And that feeling would be...?"

"I think you know the answer to that." Rei grinned. "Speaking of the unspoken word, did my tarot predictions come true?"

"I've got it, it's love isn't it?" Miyako's eyes lit up.

"A little too slow, but yes." Kaoru turned to Rei. "Of course not. As if some silly little cards could predict my future."

"But you're starting to like him, yes? As far as I'm concerned you and Butch even went on a date."

"WHAT!? Where'd you hear that!?"

"I have my sources." Rei grinned even more, and turned to Momoko and Miyako. "And what about you guys?"

The girls said nothing, just looked away. They knew her prediction was coming true. Rei laughed.

"You guys are so cute." She stood up and yawned. "But I'll warn you guys... there will be some obstacles, I can feel it now. And the boys... I don't know. They seem to be purely white light now, but I have a feeling there's something left there from the past."

"As in, black light?" Kaoru scoffed. "And why do you think that?"

"Intuition. If there's one thing I can do well, it's hear and follow my intuition. And it's telling me that there's something slightly off about this. Don't be surprised if they... change." Rei left the room and headed into the kitchen, leaving the girls dumbfounded. "Oh, and be careful about hanging out at Mojo's former lair." Rei shouted from the kitchen. "There seems to be something a little dark about it's aura. Be cautious." With those words, the girls sat stunned and in silence, not saying a word, and not moving their eyes at all.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	11. Love and Wars

**Reunited**

**Chapter 11: Love and Wars**

**Quick Author's Note: Okay, so in this chapter and the next few, there will be a new character. And his name is that of another famous anime characters. But he's completely original (not from any other anime), so don't assume things. (You'll get the joke... I'll post it at the end of the story xD) **

The girls tried no to think much about what Rei has told them. Just because she was a year older, where did she come off, acting as if she were some wise sage and all? Rei was just a regular girl, just like them, with the exception of being a Powerpuff. But the predicitons she had made were starting to come true. And her theories made sense. What was she up to?

Nevertheless, the girls tried to focus less on Rei's theories and more on... everything else. Which for them meant school, friends, and sports/shopping/pigging out on candy. And boys. But not just any boys.

----- ----

"Yo, Momoko!" Brick ran up to Momoko as soon as the bell rang after Geometry, the last class of the day. "His backpack was slung over one shoulder, and he was wearing his usual red cap- his favorite. Backwards of course. "How'd you do?" He grabbed her test paper of her desk before she got to reply. "Nerd." he shoved the test back onto the desk.

"Hello to you too." Momoko stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh yeah, getting a 93 on a math test is _sooo horrible_." She slipped the test into her backpack.

"You did pretty well."

"I had a great tutor." Both of them looked away for a moment, and when they looked back, their eyes met.

"At least you were able to focus more in class. Not daydreaming about cake like you usually do, are you?"

"Nope. 100% focused." She smiled at him. Focused? Yes. On math? No. How _could_ she focus when Brick's desk right in front of hers? She sat right behind him, and lately, even being in the same room as him made her heart rate increase. Why was that? _Okay, so I have a little crush on the guy. That's not a big deal. I mean, I pretty much have a new crush each day. I like any guy that is cute or romantic._ She quickly snapped back to reality. "What about you? What did you get?"

"96." Brick grinned.

"And _I'm _the nerd." Momoko answered sarcastically. Brick leaned on the table.

"Yep. Let's celebrate our nerdiness. Come with me, Butch, and Boomer after school to get some italian ice. With your friends, of course. "

"What about Momoko's friends?" Kaoru walked into the room, and Miyako trailed behind her.

"Come with us after school to get some italian ice." Boomer said, standing up from his desk in the very front of the room. Butch ran in the room.

"Are we going or what?" Butch shouted. The teacher, who was still at his desk, shot a glance at Butch, who just rolled his eyes after the teacher looked away.

"You guys have this all planned out, don't you?" Kaoru asked. "Well too bad. I can't go."

"What? Why not?" Miyako frowned. "Italian ices sound really good right now. It's still pretty warm outside..."

"I have karate today."

"So what? We'll only be there for half an hour." Brick answered.

"Please, Kaoru?" Momoko pleaded. Of course the Sugar Queen would want to get something sweet right after school.

"We can even share the ice." Butch walked over to her and grinned.

"You wish. That just gives me one more reason _not _to go."

"Just one? _Pleeaase?_" Miyako looked at Kaoru with her puppy-dog eyes, the one disgustingly cute thing she couldn't resist about her friends- they knew her weaknesses.

"Fine." Kaoru sighed. "Karate doesn't start until 4:30 anyway."

----- ----

"One strawberry ice for me, please." Momoko told the cashier. As she reached to get her wallet, Brick stopped her.

"Don't. I'll pay." Momoko's eyes lit up. If there was anything she liked more than sweets, it was sweets for free. Brick took out a $20 bill and handed it to the cashier.

"Are you sure?" Kaoru asked. "I mean, we can pay for ourselves."

"Nope. I invited you guys, so I'll pay." The cashier handed Momoko her ice, and Momoko thanked her and thanked Brick for paying.

"Itadakimasu!" Everyone said together, as they started to eat their ice cream. As Kaoru took a few licks of her lemon-lime ice cream and then turned around to walk away from the counter. As she turned, she bumped into another person and her ice cream smeared all over his and her shirt.

"Watch where you're--" Kaoru was about to pick a fight, but as she looked up, she suddenly stopped. _This guy is _gorgeous.

"Oh, my bad." The boy turned around to get some napkins from the counter. He took a handful of napkins, and then handed her some. "I should've watched where I was going." he said, as he scrubbed his shirt.

"No, no. It's okay. I should've watched where _I_ was going." Kaoru tried to apologize as the girls gaped. Kaoru almost _never_ apologized, especially for something like this. Kaoru started wiping at her shirt.

"North High?" the boy asked.

"Huh? Yeah. How'd you guess?" Kaoru looked up suddenly, and her eyes accidentally met with the boys. His deep brown eyes were nearly sucking Kaoru in.

"The sweater." the boy chuckled as he pointed to the school sweater tied around Kaoru's waist.

"Oh. Where do you go?"

"Same as you."

"Really? We haven't really seen you around," Momoko said, butting in. "We're sophmores, and you?"

"Sophmores, huh? I guessed that. I'm a senior there. So you haven't seen me around because we don't have any classes together. I'm Hikaru Sato. And you three?"

"Well, I'm Miyako Gotokuji." Miyako quickly introduced herself and slightly bowed as she stepped in front of Momoko. Momoko glared at her. _That was a little too fast._

"I'm Momoko Akadutsumi." Momoko quickly said right after Miyako.

Kaoru pushed the two out of her way. "Kaoru Matsubara." she said with a slight smile.

"So, I'm guessing those three guys over there are your boyfriends?" Hikaru pointed to the three Rowdyruffs. He sighed. "Lucky guys, to be with girls like you..." The three girls giggled. Even Kaoru was too busy flirting to notice how girly she was acting.

As the three girls fawned over Hikaru, the boys finally turned around and noticed that the girls were in the other corner of the cafe.

"No, they're not really our boyfriends." Momoko finally answered. "More like friends."

"Aquaintinces. We're not dating them." Kaoru looked at her ice cream.

Butch came up to Kaoru and slung his hand around her shoulders. "Not yet, anyway." He smiled at Hikaru. Kaoru elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ignore him, please." Kaoru shot a deathly look at Butch and then turned back to Hikaru.

"So, you guys are also sophmores?" asked Hikaru as the other two joined in.

"Yeah." Brick said, and Boomer nodded.

"Well, I've got to get going." Hikaru said. He leaned in to whisper to the boys while the girls move away to another table to watch Hikaru from a distance. "But one quick word of advice- you might want to ask these girls out soon. Before someone snatches them away from you." The boys glared at Hikaru. As he left, we winked at the girls.

----- ----

"OH MY GOD!" Momoko said loudly. "Isn't he _beautiful?!_" The three girls talked about nothing other than Hikaru on their way back home, while the boys just groaned and rolled their eyes as they walked silently behind the girls.

"That is an understatement!" Miyako exclaimed. "His eyes were so deep and mysterious..."

"His eyes? Did you see his freaking _biceps_?" Kaoru said.

"He seemed to really like you Kaoru." Miyako said, showing a hint of jealousy.

"Really? You think so?"

"Definetely. I think he winked at you." Momoko said, also feeling a little jealous. Butch groaned. The girls stopped and faced the boys. "What's the matter?"

"What's the matter? For half an hour, all you guys have been talking about is Hikaru." Boomer said, keeping a calm voice. "We get it- you think he's hot. But seriously, when we see some hot girl on the street, we don't spend half an hour talking about her."

"At least not in front of others." Butch smirked. Kaoru just rolled her eyes.

"Fine. We'll stop talking about his complete _gorgeousness._ Happy?" Momoko said. The girls turned back to each other.

"What class do you think he's in?" Miyako asked.

Kao thought for a moment. "I don't know. He looked pretty smart, so I thi-"

"Hey! HEY!" Boomer shouted. The girls stopped again and turned to them.

"What?" Kaoru asked. "We're not talking about how hot he is, are we? Just about what class he's in." The girls turned back to each other.

"Do you think he's on any sports team? He looked so strong..." Momoko answered. "I wonder if me likes me?" she wondered out loud.

"I guess so... he pretty much winked at all of us." Kaoru said, a little disappointed.

"Really? So he likes me too?" Miyako said, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

The boys just followed the girls, and tried not to listen to their ridicously girl conversation.

----- ----

Kaoru slowly walked the hallway, although she was late to class. As usual, she didn't care about being late.

"Hall pass, please?" Kaoru quickly turned around as she heard the familiar voice, the one that was haunting her since yesterday afternoon. She froze in place for half a second, then quickly turned around.

"Hey." She said, and smirked. "Since when are you the hallway police?"

"Since never. Just late, like you." He jogged up to Kaoru. "What class?"

"Health, room 122."

"Science, room 134. Let me walk with you."

"Sure." Kaoru's heart rate picked up a little as she looked away, slightly blushing.

"So... I was thinking..." Hikaru said, pausing. He put his hands in his pockets. "Maybe we could hang out some time?" Kaoru's heart jumped at this.

"Hang out? As in a date?" Kaoru said, looking skeptically at Hikaru.

"Yeah, what else?" Hikaru grinned.

"That sounds sweet, but wouldn't damage your rep? A senior on a date with a sophmore?" Kaoru said mock-worried.

"Well, , I can't go wrong with a tomboy." He looked at her. "Especially one as cute as you." Kaoru's cheeks flushed. "So, uh... would you like to exchange numbers?" Kaoru's eyes lit up, and she blushed even more.

"Sure!" she reached into her backpack quickly for a post-it and a pen, and scribbled down her cell number, her name, and drew a smiley face. She tore off the note and handed it to Hikaru. He took the note, folded it, and put it in his pocket.

"Thanks. Can I use your pen?" he asked her. Kaoru handed him the pen. He took her hand and wrote down just his number on her palm. "So... I guess I'll call or text you?"

"I guess so." Kaoru said, smiling. At that moment, a young-looking teacher stepped out of their classroom.

"You're late! Get to class, Sato. You too, Matsubara." she said sternly.

"Will do, Fujioka-sensei." Hikaru said, smiling. The teacher eyed the two students and stepped back into her classroom. "I guess I gotta go. See ya, Kaoru." He waved as her ran down the hallway to his next class. Kaoru looked at her smiled and walked into her classroom. As she sat down, she quickly looked at her palm. In addition to his phone number, Hikaru had written something else there. _Let's keep this a secret for now._ Kaoru's heart was thumping like crazy, but not in a bad way. _Nope. Not bad at all, Kaoru._

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	12. Jealousy

**Reunited**

**Chapter 12: Jealousy**

Momoko ran down the stairs, her fiery hair trailing behind her. _Thank GOD it's Friday! The day is over! Too bad for Kaoru and Miyako, though! After-school clubs- what a waste of time! And on a Friday, no less! A Friday!_ The girl burst through the front doors of the school. The campus was packed with high schoolers eager to leave the long week behind them, even if only for two days. The school's bells rang, indicating the official end of the school day. At least for those fortunate enough not to have their favorite club on the last day of the week. Momoko walked towards the street to await the bus.

Momoko anxiously checked her watch every minute. _Damn bus! It's 2:45 already! _She sprinted into the bus as soon as it arrived, only to find it stuffed. No places to sit. Slowly, she made her way to the rear of the bus. Momoko looked around for a familiar face to talk to or even get acquainted with. But no such luck- the bus was full of juniors and seniors- unknown faces to her. Disappointed that the fact that there was no one to mingle with- after all, she hated being alone with no one to talk to- the redhead sighed, disgruntled, and took out her yellow iPod and waited until the bus reached her stop.

As soon as she had seen the bright pink banner above her favorite bakery, she knew her stop would be next. The girl tried to push past the throng of upperclassmen but her weak arms could not manage to pull her through. "Excuse me, coming through." she mumbled, too quietly for a mob of high schoolers on a bus to hear her. As she managed to stick out her leg and pull herself through, Momoko felt something catch her foot. Stumbling over the object, she fell into a sea of teenagers.

"Woah! Are you alright?" Momoko recognized that voice. She looked up to find herself in the arms of Hikaru Sato. Momoko blushed furiously. Not only had she almost fell on her face in front of an upperclassman, but he caught her as well. She didn't know whether to be embarrassed or excited.

"Yes. T-thank you." Momoko pulled herself up with the help of Hikaru.

"Momoko, right?" Hikaru asked, smiling at her. "A friend of Kaoru's?" Momoko smiled and nodded.

"We bumped into you the other day."

"Literally." Both chuckled at the incident from the other day. "Where are your friends? Kaoru and Miyako, as well as those three boys?"

"Kaoru has soccer practice. Miyako has fashion club. As for those three idiots, I'm not quite sure."

"And you?"

"I just want to go home as soon as possible." Momoko giggled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that she had missed her stop. It was worth it. _One more block won't hurt..._ she thought to herself, smiling.

----- ----

_Home, finally!_ Momoko threw open the doors of her house and rushed inside. Okay, so maybe she had lied about wanting to get home as soon as possible. Maybe she would've rather stayed on the bus and talked to Hikaru. Nevertheless, she was excited to be home. After a long week of learning (_Yeah, right! _she thought to herself,) being home was not such a bad thing. Dumping her backpack on the floor, she put on her indoor shoes and ran to her computer, opening her instant messenger.

----- ----

_SummerSweetPeach has logged on_

_kaoticgirlz has logged on_

_HiMiyaWari has logged on_

**kaoticgirlz: momoko! you're finally online! bout time...**

_HiMiyaWari: i know! she's usually the first one to log on... _

SummerSweetPeach_: _ah... wait a minute... didn't u guys have clubs 2day?

**kaoticgirlz: soccer is being moved to tuesdays and thursdays **

_HiMiyaWari: fashion club is merging w/ sewing club now cuz of the school budget D: and sewing club is on thursdays_

SummerSweetPeach: oh, i'm sorry miyako... :(

_HiMiyaWari: it's okay... I might be able to meet new people though. :)_

**kaoticgirlz: always the optimist... anywaay, u didnt answer our question! y r u so l8? U must be punished! D:**

_HiMiyaWari: ah, it's okay kao-rin. maybe she was busy... maybe she was hanging out with a certain red-haired boy ;)_

**kaoticgirlz: don't call me that -.- but wer u momoko?**

SummerSweetPeach: wat? of course not! :(

**kaoticgirlz: come on momoko, it's obvious u like him**

_HiMiyaWari: and as in LIKE like, not "like"_

SummerSweetPeach: ???

SummerSweetPeach: guys, I don't LIKE like him. and I wasnt hanging out w/ him 2day

SummerSweetPeach: in fact, I wuz hanging out w/ a certain boy after school, but it wasnt brick ;)

**kaoticgirlz: MOMOKO U NAUGHTY FLIRT :D who was it?**

_HiMiyaWari: tell us! :D_

SummerSweetPeach: u guys really wanna know?

SummerSweetPeach: it was Hikaru Sato :D **screams with joy, then faints**

**kaoticgirlz: Hikaru?**

_HiMiyaWari: the upperclassman we bumped into the other day?_

SummerSweetPeach: mhmm :)

_HiMiyaWari: u saw him? where? wen? why? Tell :)_

**kaoticgirlz: oh... u met him? wer u guys like flirting or talking**

SummerSweetPeach: I nvr sed I was flirting w/ him :) but I met him on the bus... lol funny story

**kaoticgirlz: (sigh) according to momoko its story-telling time. we'r listening**

SummerSweetPeach: okay

SummerSweetPeach: so on the bus, I was all alone with nobody to talk to. so I suffered the entire bus ride home... poor lonely me. so then, I was trying 2 get 2 the back of the bus 2 the rear exit, but I tripped over something and almost got trampled by a mob of teenagers. but then Hikaru caught me, like I swear, it seems like something out of a shoujo manga, and then we just started talking...

**kaoticgirlz: that still duznt explain y u wer home so l8**

SummerSweetPeach: wow kaoru, u sound like my mom xD. I thought for sure u'd say sumthing like "momoko u klutz" or "nice going, momo-ron"

_HiMiyaWari: momo-ron?_

SummerSweetPeach: u know, moron? momoko + moron = momoron

_HiMiyaWari: oooh I get it_

SummerSweetPeach: so wats up kaoru? U seem so upset D: did something happen?

**kaoticgirlz: no no im fine**

_HiMiyaWari: u sure?_

**kaoticgirlz: yeah**

SummerSweetPeach: smile for me :)

**kaoticgirlz: oh god momoko, not again**

SummerSweetPeach: just do it, and i'll leave u alone

_HiMiyaWari: here, like this, see? :) or like this :D_

**kaoticgirlz: :) there, happy?**

----- ----

But Kaoru wasn't really happy. She couldn't smile. Hikaru and Momoko? They weren't really flirting were they? Of course, Momoko was too shy to flirt with boys, but just the fact that her best friend liked the same guy she liked hurt her. Momoko didn't state it clearly that she liked Hikaru, but Kaoru read between the lines. Momoko may not have noticed it herself, but she was pretty. If she tried, she could've gotten any boy in the grade, possibly several upperclassmen. But why, of all people, did Momoko have to LIKE like Hikaru? Why not just stick to Brick? Kaoru's heart raced, and her head just didn't shut up. She looked at her cell phone, laying near the computer. She eyed it for a minuted and then picked it up and looked through her contacts. She smiled when she found his name. _All's fair in love and war. Since we both like Hikaru, I'll just have to beat her to the punch. I already have a head start. _Kaoru opened up a new text message- her ticket to a date with Hikaru Sato.

----- ----

Ten text messages and one poor excuse to her friends about doing homework later, Kaoru was getting ready for her date. _What to wear?! Goddamit, why do I have to go through this again?!_ Kaoru rummaged through her closet and drawers, looking for something suitable to wear. But no luck. The only thing she had was her dress and heels from her date with Butch. But there was no way she was ever wearing that again. Ever. _Calm down, Kaoru, we're only going to see a movie._ Finally, she found a clean, tight white tank top that was almost wrinkle-free. She slid on some dark skinny jeans, funky graffiti high-tops, a yellow hoodie, and her green PPGZ belt. She looked through her closet to find some old presents and gift bags from Miyako and Momoko that might have contained a body spray or perfume sample. No such luck. Only a small body lotion sampler she had received for free after a day of torture, er, shopping with Miyako and Momoko at the mall. _It'll do. _Kaoru stuffed her cell phone into her hoodie pocket and twenty bucks into her pocket. She glanced her watch and jogged towards the door.

"Somebody's looking fancy. Big date?" said her brother from across the kitchen.

"Shut it." Kaoru searched for her keys. Her father walked into the room.

"Where are you going, Kaoru?"

"Just to see a movie with a friend." Kaoru continued searching for her keys.

"A boy?"

"Yes, dad."

"My little girl is growing up..." Kaoru's father said choking on his words. "I guess I should give you _the talk_ now." He sat down and motioned for Kaoru to sit down as well.

"Not now, dad. I'm late. I already know how it works. I have two brothers, for god's sake. You think I wouldn't know this stuff by the age of fifteen?" Kaoru finally found the keys and stuffed them in her pocket.

"I guess you're right. Can you give your old man a hug though?"

"Nope. Gotta go. Bye dad!" Kaoru darted out the door.

"They grow up so fast..." her father said, shaking his head. From across the kitchen, his son groaned. "Or maybe not fast enough..." he said under his breath.

**Author's Note: **

**I have moved the old author's notes to invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	13. Friendships

**Reunited**

**Chapter 13: Friendships**

Kaoru and Hikaru stepped out of the movie theatre as Hikaru held the door open for both of them.

"Wow, I guess the Twilight series isn't as completely horrible as I thought it would be." Kaoru remarked, keeping her arms crossed and trying to tone down the huge grin on her face.

"Who knew that New Moon was pretty good?" Hikaru asked. "Did you like the movie?"

"The movie was okay," Kaoru said slowly. "But there was a lot of shirtless Taylor Lautner."

"Is that bad? Half of the fangirls in the theatre nearly fainted when they saw him. I'm surprised, Kaoru." He said, smirking.

"Oh _wow_, a movie actor looks hot. Big deal. They act as if he's some kind of sex god."

"And you don't think he's hot?" Hikaru asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, he's okay. I don't know. I really don't care much about this kind of stuff. I'm not the type of girl to fawn over celebrities."

"But you are the type of girl who likes some muscle."

"Damn straight."

"And that's what I like about you." Hikaru smiled and took a sip of his icee. Kaoru looked at him, wide-eyed and surprised. "You're not the same as all the other moronic, giggly girls who like clothes and male actors and Victoria's Secret. You're different." Kaoru smiled.

"Thanks." Kaoru smiled and stuck her hands into her hoodie pocket. She had no idea what to say.

"So, should I walk you home?"

"Oh, no I'm fine, thanks." She had no idea what to say to him. She was blushing furiously and she was embarrassed for no reason. She didn't want to blurt out something random and make it awkward.

"Kay. Well then, I hope I'll see you again sometime." Kaoru waved a goodbye to Hikaru nodded. As she turned around she took out her iPod and stuck the headphones in her ears. No matter how loud she turned it up, the date was still replaying clearly in her head. She pulled the hood over her head and started to walk home, a huge smile on her face. Sticking her hands in her pockets and nodding her head up and down to the beat, she started to walk home.

After ten minutes of walking down the busy street, Kaoru felt something tugging her shirt. She quickly spun around, ready to attack in case it was some stalker. However, to her relief it was only a blonde and a redhead staring her with surprise.

"Woah, relax Kaoru." Momoko stared at Kaoru, already in her fighting stance. She put her hand on Kaoru's fist and lowered it.

"Oh... it's just you two." Kaoru relaxed.

"Yeah, it's us. Who else would it be?" Miyako playfully stuck her tongue out at Kaoru.

"You never know." Kaoru smiled and looked at Momoko. The three sat down at a bench to get out of sidewalk. She saw Momoko's smiling face and looked away. Suddenly she felt guilty for her secret date with Hikaru. _So what if she was my friend? First of all, I liked him first, right? I met him first... If it weren't for my clumsiness, we wouldn't have met him at all... Second of all, she'll never know, will she? _Kaoru shook her head.

"Hey... Kaoru," Momoko leaned in to Kaoru and sniffed. "You smell different... like... in a good way... Like a perfume... hm..." Momoko leaned back and tried to think of the name.

"Really?" Miyako sniffed Kaoru. "You're right! It smells like... some Bath and Body Works lotion..."

Momoko came back to reality. "That's it! I think its called..."

"Winter candy apple!" both Momoko and Miyako said together. Kaoru stared at her girly friends, wide-eyed. Not because she was impressed, but because they would start to wonder-

"Why are you wearing body lotion?" Momoko asked, puzzled. "Especially such a girly-smelling one?"

"Maybe Kaoru has a date." Miyako said, smiling. Kaoru shot her a death glance. Momoko's eyes widened.

"No way! Who was it? Tell! Tell!" Momoko would've been jumping up and down if not seated on the bench. Kaoru looked around, reluctant to tell Momoko for some reason.

"Um... how 'bout we go to one of your houses to talk about it?"

"Your house is the closest," Miyako said. "Why don't we just go there?"

"Um, my dad and brothers are watching sports on tv, so they'll be extremely loud outside our room." That was a lie. In reality, her dad would just keep bugging her to tell about the date to make sure nothing "inappropriate" happened and her brothers would try to listen in on the girls' conversation. "Well, then let's go to my house. Besides, it's been a while since a sleepover, huh?" Miyako asked. The two other girls agreed and the three were off to Miyako's mansion-like house.

– – –

After Kaoru had called her parents to let them know that she was, in fact, at Miyako's house and not that of her date's (Momoko's and Miyako's voices were still required over the phone as proof) the three girls sat cross-legged on a their bed in Miyako's western-style guest room, wearing robes.

So, who was it?" Momoko asked, too eager to sit still.

"Um..." Kaoru looked around the room. She really didn't want to tell Momoko, afraid the truth would hurt her.

"Come on, tell!" Miyako was almost as excited to know as Momoko. But unlike Momoko, she didn't dream about falling in love and Prince Charmings 24/7.

Kaoru took a breath. "It was Hikaru." she muttered, still unable to look Momoko in the eye. From the corner of her eye she saw Momoko's smile fade slightly.

"Really? That guy from the italian ice incident?" Miyako asked, excitedly, not sensing the suddenly heavy atmosphere.

"Yeah... him." Kaoru looked up and tried to show a faint smile.

"Well, that's great! You two look really cute together!" Momoko said, sounding a little strained. Miyako and Kaoru looked at her. Miyako looked at Kaoru and then back to Momoko.

"It seems to me... that you both like him." Kaoru and Momoko quickly turned to Miyako, who was twirling a strand of her blonde curls around her finger.

"M-me? What are you talking about? Liking the same guy as my best friend... that can't happen can it?" Momoko said, chuckling nervously.

"Come on, Momoko. It's pretty obvious. Admit it. We both like him." Kaoru said, staring at Momoko. The two made eye contact and looked away. They weren't going to get competitive now, were they? Miyako's straightforward observation just made everything a little awkward. Miyako noticed this and sat for a few seconds in silence with them.

"I've got it!" Two pairs of eyes darted to her. "Kaoru, you went on _a _date, but you're not _dating_ yet, are you? As in, boyfriend and girlfriend?" Kaoru looked down and shook her head. "Great. Now, both of you have your chance. Each one of you can go on a couple of dates with him and let him pick." Momoko's pink eyes glared at Miyako and her childish ignorance. Kaoru tried to telepathically urge Miyako to change her mind. There couldn't have possibly been a worse idea. Yet they didn't have the heart to disagree with Miyako. Both girls had a feeling of how this would end, and they didn't like it.

– – –

The three had fell asleep peacefully. But after a night of twisting a turning, Miyako had woken on her side, with her feet on the pillow, and her head where her feet where supposed to be, without the blanket covering even an inch of her body. Momoko had woken up laying on the carpet, in the middle of her room. She rubbed her eyes only to see Kaoru laying with her feet on the bed and her back on the floor snoring quietly. She quietly laughed about their sleeping positions.

"I guess we didn't sleep so tight, did we?" Miyako asked, undoing her hair curlers. Momoko stood up to open up the curtains. She peeked through them to see Miyako's grandmother in the backyard, practicing her daily morning tai-chi. She left the curtains open enough for a small ray of light to shine into the room. Kaoru felt the light entering the room and opened her eyes. After waking up upside-down and confused she let out a small yelp when her legs fell to the floor with a thud. Miyako and Momoko turned towards her, giggling. Kaoru scratched her head.

"Good morning..." she said sleepily. Kaoru fell back onto the floor and closed her eyes. Momoko skipped over to her.

"Kaoru~... come on! It's Saturday! We have to go to the lab today." she said in a whiny tone, poking the sleepy girl's face.

"Ah, it's okay. We woke up about half an hour early. Let her sleep." Miyako said.

"'Xactly. So leave. Me. Alone." Kaoru shooed away Momoko's hand with her own. Momoko playfully swatted back at Kaoru before running off to Miyako's closet to pick what to wear.

"Oh! I like this one!" Momoko stood on her tiptoes and leaned across the closet to reach for skirt laying on a particularly high shelf. Even by jumping up and down, she was not able to her her fingers within reach of the hanging fabric to pull it down.

"Haha. Shortie." Kaoru mocked her, even though Momoko was 5'6''.

"Shush!" Momoko did not even turn around to silence her friend, but just kept jumping and down frantically, her tongue sticking out. Miyako sat on a chair across the room, highly entertained with her friends' antics. Her head bobbed up and down as she watched Momoko bounce. Momoko let out a disappointed grunt and backed up a few steps. She took a running start and leaped to reach the skirt.

Unfortunately, she had miscalculated. Although she got the skirt, she knocked down the shelf, slammed into the wall, fell on her butt, and as she stood up, tripped over the mountain of clothes and hit the closet door while falling down again. Kaoru had hysterical, uncontrollable laughter. Even Miyako was trying to suppress her giggling.

"You klutz!" Kaoru said, in between laughs. She wiped a tear from her eye. Her friends were hilarious. Momoko ignored Kaoru.

"Got it!" Momoko jumped up and started sliding the skirt on over her boyshort pajamas.

Struggling to pull them on, the redhead wiggled her bony hips and started jumping around the room, trying to pull the skirt up.

"Haha. Fatty." Kaoru smirked. Momoko hopped up to a bed, yanked off the pillow, and hurled it at Kaoru's head.

"I'm not fat! If anything, I'm skinny!" Momoko said, jumping up and down, looking like a three year old throwing a tantrum.

"Yeah? Who told you that?" Kaoru chortled. Oh, how much fun it was to mess with her friend's heads. "It must be 'cause of all the sweets. You put on a few kilos..." Kaoru walked up to Momoko, who was turning crimson. "Squish" she said, as she poked Momoko's stomach. Momoko turned completely red and looked as if she was about to strangle Kaoru.

Miyako watched the scene, laughing hysterically. "I... should've told... you" she said, gasping for air in between words. "That skirt is... from two years ago." Momoko turned red with embarrassment, then anger. She slid out of the skirt and plopped down on the floor next to Kaoru, who was busy rolling on the floor laughing. Literally.

"Oh shut it, Kaoru. You could've told me, Miyako!" Momoko folded her arms across her chest.

"It was too funny." Miyako admitted, standing up from her seat. "Here, I have some clothes down here that might fit you." Miyako rummaged through the pile of clothes on the floor. Finally, she pulled out a black pleated skirt and a blue Hello Kitty tank top for Momoko to wear. "Do you want me to pick out something for you, Kaoru?"

"Nah, I'm good." Kaoru said, resting from her fit of laughter.

– – –

As soon as Kaoru had slipped on yesterday's clothes, the three darted to the lab without sitting down for breakfast. The girls walked up to the door of the lab, rang the bell, and waited. The door creaked open, and behind it stood a familiar purple-haired girl standing with a cookie in her mouth. Peach ran up to the door.

"Powerpuff Z da wan! You guys are back da wan!" she barked happily.

"You guys are pretty late, we thought you wouldn't show." Rei said, smiling. "Glad you could make it."

"Yeaah... sorry about that! But we're here now!" Momoko said, apologizing.

"Somebody is a sleepy-head." Miyako giggled playfully.

Momoko laughed nervously. "Better late than never." Kaoru said, unfazed, as she slipped inside.

– – –

**Author's Note:**

**The author's note is officially posted on my website- invisibleheart . Weebly . com**

**Once again, it's:  
invisibleheart (not hearts) dot weebly dot com.**

**I have moved the old author's notes to the wesbite. You can find the link on my profile. It's my little website with a general blog, FF blog, author's notes, pictures, and more. Please visit if you aren't lazy enough to click the link! Ty! :D**

**-IH**


	14. Friends and Rivals

**Reunited**

**Chapter 14: Both a Friend and a Rival **

After spending an entire Saturday morning inside the lab with Peach, Ken, and Professor Utonium, they happily feasted on some leftovers at the lab while watching news and such on one of the laboratory's many huge hi-tech televisions.

"So, girls," Rei said, gulping down a spoonful of cereal "your energy seems higher than normal today. Good morning?" Rei was answered with murmurs and nods.

"I was just wondering if…" Miyako said, looking away from the tv, "If you could read our cards again?"

"Cards…? As in tarots?" Rei glanced at Miyako who nodded happily. Kaoru let out a quiet snort. "No can do. I can only read once every three months, otherwise I'll confuse the spirits." Kaoru let out an audible scoff. "But I can always read your horoscopes." Rei chirped happily. Seeing these girls look up to her made her feel old and… special.

"Really? You can do that?" Momoko let out a sideways glance, finally distracted from the tv.

"Not exactly… Well, not by myself. I have _Seventeen_ horoscopes and the internet."

"Good enough!" Momoko jumped off the stool and put her dish in the sink. Miyako followed, but Kaoru stayed seated on the couch.

"You're not coming?" Momoko asked, a little disappointed.

"I'm not that interested." Kaoru's eyes didn't leave the tv.

"Suit yourself." Rei said. "Come on, upstairs to my room."

"Your room? You _live_ here?" Miyako asked, confused.

"Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot to tell you guys. But I can't believe you didn't realize it earlier." Momoko looked shocked for a moment and then confused.

"And your parents…?" Suddenly Momoko regretted asking that, as it could've been a touchy subject.

"They're in a better place." Rei said grimly. Miyako looked down at the floor. Momoko was shocked, once again. Even Kaoru looked away from the tv for a second.

"I'm _so _sorry. I wouldn't have brought it up if I had know-"

"Europe."

"Huh?"

"The bastards left me for a few years to explore Europe by horseback. They're travelers, you see. I couldn't come because of school." Rei giggled. "Scared you, huh?"

"YES! God, Rei! Don't do that again!" Momoko exclaimed. Miyako just let out a sigh of relief. Kaoru turned back to the tv.

"Haha… Sorry. Come on, up to my room!" The three darted upstairs.

_Me and my big mouth…_thought Rei.

---

After exploring and discussing several of the winter fashions, the girls headed downstairs with a laptop. They set it down on the kitchen table, near Kaoru.

"Why're you guys…?" Kaoru asked, still watching the news, which was now showing some recent sports scores.

"We though you'd like to see this." Miyako said, smiling.

"You thought wrong."

"Don't be so boring. Come, look!" Momoko rolled Kaoru's chair towards their end of the table.

"Hey!" Kaoru exclaimed, wriggling to get out. But she was surrounded by the three girls. She looked down on a piece of paper that they had scribbled their birthdates on. _You can't be serious. They actually believe in this?_

"Kaoru, your horosco-"

Kaoru protested. "I don't want to hear it."

"Since your birthday is May 3, 1994, your life path is 4, and you're a Scorpio. Your fortune for this month is 'Love is the only medicine for a broken heart.' " Miyako read off the paper. Kaoru snatched the paper and stared at it. Sure enough, they wrote little notes about themselves.

_Rei: Capricorn (December 25, 1994) __"Your heart is pure, and your mind clear, and your soul devout." LP 5_

_Momoko: Sagittarius (November 26, 1994) "__There is a true and sincere friendship between you and your friends." LP 9_

_Miyako: Virgo (August 25, 1994) "__Hearts are not to be had as a gift, hearts are to be earned."_

_Kaoru: Scorpio (May 3, 1994) "Love is the only medicine for a broken heart." LP 4_

_Brick: Leo _

_Boomer: Cancer_

_Butch: Taurus_

"Wait, why are Butch, Brick, and Boomer on this paper?"

"We were just curious." Miyako shrugged.

"How do you know their birthdays?"

"We don't. since they were artificially created, we just matched them up based on the personalities of the horoscopes they matched best." Momoko said happily.

_Right. Artificially created. I forget that sometimes. But now that I think about it… something seems wrong…Why can't I remember what it is?_

"Whatever. I can't believe you guys rely on some silly girly magazine for information about your future love lives." Kaoru slid out of the chair.

"Oh, we didn't. We relied on the website of a well-known astrology expert." Rei said.

"It's still bullshit." Kaoru said, a little nervous. What did that quote mean? Was it actually true? _Of course not. They're just trying to trick you- to get into your head. That's how they make money._

"I'd keep those 'fortunes' in mind if I were you. They seem to reflect my tarot readings pretty well."

"That's just a coincidence."

"Whatever you say, Kaoru." As she was standing behind them, none of the girls could see Rei smirking.

---

That night, Kaoru and Momoko lay wide awake, each in their own beds at home. Who would win a certain boy's heart? Would they really take Miyako's advice? They had no choice. They would have to become love rivals. Deep inside, they realized they knew that from the start.

---

SummerSweetPeach: i guess i'm not the only one who cant fall asleep…

**kaoticgirlz: yeah**

SummerSweetPeach: whats up?

**kaoticgirlz: i just cant fall asleep. thinking.**

SummerSweetPeach: about…?

**kaoticgirlz: what miyako said on our sleepover**

SummerSweetPeach: oh

SummerSweetPeach: and?

**kaoticgirlz: should we do it? the whole competition?**

SummerSweetPeach: love rivals, huh?

**kaoticgirlz: w/e u want to call it**

SummerSweetPeach: wont it make us all love-crazed and crazy and like total bitches?

SummerSweetPeach: it cud possibly ruin our friendship, yknow.

**kaoticgirlz: i took that into account**

**kaoticgirlz: but we both like him…**

SummerSweetPeach: so…

SummerSweetPeach: promise we won't let this ruin our bfflness?

**kaoticgirlz: of course not**

SummerSweetPeach: then it's settled. We're both friends and love rivals. I'll want you to succeed, but ill also be like "i hope that bitch goes down"

SummerSweetPeach: JKJKJK xD

**kaoticgirlz: i sense a bit of truth behind that**

SummerSweetPeach: i'm joking. don't take it so seriously. Smile for meee :D

**kaoticgirlz: i cant. what if this goes horribly wrong?**

SummerSweetPeach: it wont. ur 2 pessimistic.

**kaoticgirlz: more like realistic**

SummerSweetPeach: just go to sleep, you pessimist.

**kaoticgirlz: i cantt**

SummerSweetPeach: go drink a half empty glass of milk

**kaoticgirlz: shut up xP**

SummerSweetPeach: ohhh theres the smilie i was waiting for :D

SummerSweetPeach: you should use smilies more often

SummerSweetPeach: w/o them, convos sound so serious

**kaoticgirlz: smilies are dumb and useless**

**kaoticgirlz: just like u. :) jkjkjkjkjk**

SummerSweetPeach: if it werent for that smilies and "jk" i wud be seriously offended.

**kaoticgirlz: good. go to sleep, you ditz.**

SummerSweetPeach: fiinee. good night :)

**kaoticgirlz: night**

---

**Author's Note:**

**Check out my real author's note at invisibleheart . weebly . com (no spaces, obviously) Or find the link on my profile. Peace.**

**-IH**


	15. Love is Blinding

**Reunited**

**Chapter 15: Love is Blinding**

Even though she and Kaoru had discussed this a few days ago, she was still nervous and felt unsure. Was Kaoru _really _okay with this? Or was she bluffing? There was only one way to find out. Momoko trotted down the hallway in help black boots and pleated red/black plaid skirt, carefully maintaining her speed as to not go too fast for her skirt to fly up. Her target was in sight. There he was, leaving class. Momoko slowed down her pace and tried to walk down the hallway in a sexier-looking way, like they did on America's Next Top Model. Except she twisted her hips a little too much and ended up tripping over her feet. Her binder fell on the floor and papers scattered everywhere. Several people cleared the way and gave her enough space to clean up. Hikaru recognized her and ran to help her.

"Always the clumsy one, aren't you?" he asked, smiling.

"No doubt about that." She said, smiling and blushing.

"If I remember correctly, you're Momoko? Kaoru's cute friend?" _Cute? No way!_

"I-uh… yeah…" she stuttered, unable to speak normally. He stood up with papers in one hand and offered her the other. She pulled herself up and accepted the papers. "Thank you, senpai!" she thanked him.

"No need to be so formal. Just call me Hikaru."

"Of course… Hikaru… I just wanted to say thank you for helping me back on the bus… and today as well. And I was wondering, if… well, I-"

The bell rung and students erupted from the classrooms.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hikaru tried to speak a little louder over the noise.

"I was wondering if you would like to go out… some time?" Hikaru looked at her for a moment.

"Sure. You're cute. Text me." He took out a pen and wrote his number on her palm. Momoko smiled.

"Of course. I'll see you later, Hikaru!" the naïve little redhead said, before running off to class.

---

"Hikaru!" Kaoru called out his name as she saw him in the hallway. He spun around from his locker. He let out his usual grin and waved to Kaoru.

"What's up?"

"Just wanted to say thanks for the date. It was fun." Kaoru didn't know how to act while she said that, so she just looked in his eyes and smiled.

"No problem. I kinda like you, Kaoru. Would a second date be alright with you?"

Kaoru flushed. _Relax. Act cool._ _Play hard to get. Boys like that, don't they?_ "Hm… I'll think about that." She said, with a devious smile on her face.

"Don't make me beg, now." He said, with a flirty smile on his face.

"Fine. I'm alright with a second date."

"Where to?"

"The arcade." Hikaru looked a little surprised when she said that.

"Alright. When?"

"Not Tuesday or Thursday… I have karate."

"How about today?"

"Today? That's a little- nevermind. Today's fine."

"Alright. I'll meet you there. Is 5 good?"

"Sure." She waved and left to her class. _Another date with Kaoru! Score! And I thought this was hard…_

---

As decided, they met at the arcade. By the time Kaoru arrived, Hikaru was already there.

"Sorry to keep you waiting… Did you wait long?"

"No, but it was definitely worth it." Hikaru said, smiling as here eyed her up and down.

"Oh… thanks." Kaoru blushed. She had spent an enormous amount of time getting ready, but in the end, she still wore a rather casual outfit. She had picked a red tank top and black cargo pants with a white hoodie with cat ears sticking up on top and a detachable tail swinging at the bottom. The hoodie was a present from Momoko for her 14th birthday. Momoko had assumed that Kaoru, like her, _loved_ cute, kitty sweaters. Kaoru had scoffed at it when she first got it for her, but later realized it looked pretty cute. Kaoru even had her side bags moved out of her face with a bobby pin, and put on some tangy-smelling perfume. She had even debated whether to put on some mascara or blush (which she found after rummaging in her mother's room) but decided against it. Makeup was a step too far. _But it's a step I'm willing to go to if there's a third date._ She barely escaped the house without raising any suspicion, though.

So the date progressed with them playing each other in Pac-Man, Dance Dance Revolution, and those games where you throw a ball into the net.

"Ah… I'm out of coins." Kaoru said.

"Me too. Should I get more?"

"No, let's cash in."

"I bet you got less than I did."

"We'll see about that." Kaoru smirked. Hikaru was just so much fun. Even though she felt really nervous inside, she was able to act herself around him.

"3412 tickets." The cashier lady said to Kaoru

She measured Hikarus's amount. "4509 tickets." Kaoru glanced at Hikaru who shot her a victorious smile.

They combined their tickets and got a huge stuffed bear, which Hikaru let Kaoru keep. _Crap, my parents will definitely think something is up after this. But it's worth it. A gift from Hikaru…_

And the date ended with a slice of pizza at a restaurant nearby. It reminded Kaoru of another date she had with someone not too long ago. _No, shut up. Don't think about him. Think about Kaoru._

And when she arrived home, she plopped down on her bed, with the large bear, and happily realized that there was no way the date could have been any better.

---

The next day, Kaoru had caught Hikaru again.

"Thanks for the date. It was fun… again."

"No problem."

"So would you like to go out some time again?"

"Already? Well, I can't today."

"Oh. Okay."

"Your friend asked me out. At that time we had only been on one date, though… and-"

"No, it's okay. We talked it over." Kaoru paused. Should she tell him. "Truth is, we're kinda in a competition right now… We both kinda like you, and we want to find out who you like more…" Kaoru could _not_ believe she just said that.

"Oh. Well thanks for being honest with me." Hikaru smiled. "No problem. But then I'll have to go on two dates with her, right? To be fair?"

"I…I guess."

"Alright. But it doesn't matter. Tomorrow's our third date. You already had a head start." Hikaru winked and walked away. Kaoru stood there, confused. In fact, she was even a little jealous. Even though Momoko was her friend, Kaoru wanted Hikaru to be only hers.

"So…two dates, huh?" _That familiar, annoying voice. _Kaoru spun around. Sure enough, Butch was leaning on the wall.

"Yeah. What's it to you?" Kaoru said, coolly, but angry inside.

"Nothing. I should probably mind my own business but-"

"Yeah. You should."

"_But_ that guy kinda seems like a player. You should be careful."

"Jealous much?"

"Not really jealous, but concerned."

"Concerned, huh? I don't remember us being close enough for you to worry." Kaoru said sharply.

"Don't be a bitch." Butch said, not knowing what else to say.

"Well excuse me." Kaoru said, ready to leave. The bell rang and all the students ran to their classrooms. They were alone in the hallway. She started to walk away but Butch grabbed her hand.

"Hey-" But it was too late. She was pinned against the wall, her hands at her sides, Butch's hands on the wall, near her shoulders.

"I'm serious. I know something is wrong with that guy."

"Maybe you're just jealous." Kaoru said angrily.

"Maybe." Said Butch, as he pushed back and walked down the hall to his classroom, leaving Kaoru shocked. _What the fuck was that about?_

---

At 6 o' clock, as it started to get dark, Momoko was waiting for Hikaru at the entrance to the beach. She stood there, suddenly wondering if her outfit was too weird for a first date. She had picked out a peachy floral summer dress with a cardigan on top. Was it too fancy? Was it too casual? She was beyond nervous. Not only was it her first date ever, meaning she had _no_ experience whatsoever, it was a date with a certain charming upperclassman, who also happened to be dating her friend. And it wasn't just a friendly date. It was a competition. She remembered her earlier conversation with her friends…

_SummerSweetPeach has logged on_

HiMiyaWari has logged on

_SummerSweetPeach: aaahhh help me miyakooo!_

HiMiyaWari: what's the matter?

_SummerSweetPeach: a date! _

_SummerSweetPeach: i have a date w/ hikaruu_

HiMiyaWari: no way!

HiMiyaWar: already?

_SummerSweetPeach: yes and idk what to do?_

_SummerSweetPeach: will kaoru be mad?_

_**kaoticgirlz has logged on**_

_**kaoticgirlz: why dnt u ask her urself?**_

_SummerSweetPeach: kaoru!_

_SummerSweetPeach: well… ur not mad, are u?_

_**kaoticgirlz: y wud i be?**_

_SummerSweetPeach: cause a date… w/… u kno who…_

_**kaoticgirlz: the whole pt is for both of us to date him, rite?**_

HiMiyaWari: yeah… the whole competition is to see who wins Hikaru

_SummerSweetPeach: but…_

_**kaoticgirlz: no "buts". go out ther and have ur date.**_

_SummerSweetPeach: u sure you're not mad?_

_**kaoticgirlz: positive**_

_SummerSweetPeach: smile for me :)_

_**kaoticgirlz: god not again**_

_**kaoticgirlz: fine**_

_**kaoticgirlz: :)**_

_**kaoticgirlz: happy?**_

_SummerSweetPeach: very. :D_

HiMiyaWari: good luck Momoko! we'll be cheering 4 u!

Even though Kaoru seemed to be happy for her, Momoko knew what Kaoru was like. Kaoru wasn't that happy on the inside.

"Hey, Momoko!" A certain voice woke her up from her flashback. She spun around happily.

"Hikar-" She stopped midsentence. "_Brick_? What are you doing here?" She looked around to make sure she was in the right place. Yep, there she was, at the beach.

"I should be asking you that." Brick stood there and scratched his head as he looked Momoko up and down.

"I'm… waiting for someone…" she said quietly.

"Oh. A date?" He smiled. She blushed. "No way! It's a date, isn't it?"

"Maybe…" Suddenly she looked really silly, standing there, all dressed up.

"Who is it?" He asked. She stood quietly. "Oh, it's that Hikaru guy, isn't it?" he asked. She looked up and she swore she saw his smile fade slightly.

"Whatever. What are you doing here?" She looked at him. He had on a jacket, partially unzipped, with a muscle shirt underneath. He was wearing baggy jeans and held bags in his hands.

"I had to go get groceries. It was my turn this week."

"So why are you _here_?"

"I was walking and I saw a girl standing alone near the beach entrance. So I wanted to go talk to her but it turned out to be you." He blushed slightly.

"You flirt." Momoko giggled. "Well I'm sorry to be disappointing."

"Eh… not so much. So, are you still failing math? Do you need me to tutor you?"

"Not really." Momoko said. Again, Brick seemed a little disappointed.

"Ah… okay then. Well I'll see you in school." Brick waved and walked away.

"Good luck finding more girls along the way!" Momoko shouted to him. He turned around and smiled. Momoko felt her heart skip a beat for a second. _No. I like Hikaru. Not Brick. Brick is like a friend to me… not anything else._

Hikaru finally arrived a few minutes later with a flower for Momoko, and the two went on their date, stargazing, and talking about school, friends, and interests. _What a great first date. He's so charming… and handsome… like a prince!_

---

SummerSweetPeach has logged on

**kaoticgirlz has logged on**

SummerSweetPeach: ok, that was _perfect_

**kaoticgirlz: hm?**

**kaoticgirlz: ohh, the date?**

SummerSweetPeach: mhmm :)

**kaoticgirlz:** **oh… wer'd u go?**

SummerSweetPeach: a walk on the beach + stargazing

SummerSweetPeach: sooo romantic :D

**kaoticgirlz: pffft**

SummerSweetPeach: hm?

**kaoticgirlz:** **that's so… sappy**

SummerSweetPeach: so?

SummerSweetPeach: wer did he take you on your date?

**kaoticgirlz:** **a movie and arcade**

SummerSweetPeach: two dates?

**kaoticgirlz:** **and another 2moro**

SummerSweetPeach: somebody got a head start

SummerSweetPeach: movies? arcade? that hardly sounds romantic at all

**kaoticgirlz:** **maybe somebody's jealous?**

SummerSweetPeach: i dont think so. i have another date on thurs.

**kaoticgirlz:** **wer 2? is prince charming going to rescue u from a castle? lol**

**kaoticgirlz:** **this isnt a shoujo manga**

**kaoticgirlz:** **its irl**

SummerSweetPeach: ik. ur saying romance cant happen irl?

SummerSweetPeach: just cuz u think its corny or just cuz it nvr happened to u duznt mean it cant happen 2 some1 else.

**kaoticgirlz:** **woah. harsh much?**

**kaoticgirlz:** **and stuff like that duznt happen irl. its gross and retarded.**

SummerSweetPeach: oh im sorry. ill just go on a date with him to see a movie, with no romance whatsoever. or ill go to the arcade and be a nerd.

**kaoticgirlz:** **im NOT a nerd, and if I was, it wud b better than being some girly manga freak who cant face reality**

**kaoticgirlz:** **and YES. i wud rather go c a movie or play in the arcade than go and have a sappy, corny, giggly, girly date**

SummerSweetPeach: omg. wtf is ur problem?

**kaoticgirlz:** _**MY**_** problem?**

SummerSweetPeach: yes. _ur_ problem. y not instead of being a bitch, u b happy for ur friend, huh?

**kaoticgirlz:** **dont play the whole "guilt trip" thing on me. im ur friend 2. u dont seem 2 effing happy 4 me.**

**kaoticgirlz: ur the 1 who's saying your date is better than mine.**

**kaoticgirlz:** **and **_**im**_** the bitch?**

Momoko bit her lip. _I knew it. I knew she was jealous._ So she wrote something she didn't mean at all, in the heat of the moment.

SummerSweetPeach: maybe ur so angry cuz hikaru likes me more?

**kaoticgirlz:** **OMG. u went on 1 date with him.**

**kaoticgirlz:** **ur a little to confident.**

**kaoticgirlz:** **fuck off, momoko.**

Momoko stared at the screen. There was no way to undo what she just wrote. Not only was she acting like a bitch, Kaoru hated her too. But deep inside, a voice was telling her, _It's okay. You're not the one at fault here. _

---

The next day, Momoko walked the halls of her school. She had passed by Kaoru once, who gave her a nasty glare. Momoko just gave her the silent treatment and avoided her stare.

"Momoko!" Momoko turned around to see Hikaru running towards her.

"Oh, hi." She smiled slightly. "I wanted to see you and tell you thanks for the date."

"No problem. So, another date on Thursday?" he asked, smiling.

"I'd love to." The waved and went their separate ways. _Oh my god, that was so cool! I sounded so mature! Who knew I could flirt?_

---

"This is annoying."

"Tell me about it."

"They're _both_ falling for him."

"And for different reasons."

"And they're ruining their friendship while they're at it."

"What's the female version of 'bros before hoes?'"

"Hoes before bros?"

"No, I don't think that's right."

"Oh! Isn't it 'chicks before dicks'?"

"Yeah! That's it."

"If only girls could follow this philosophy as well…"

"Tell me about it…"

---

"This cake is _delicious_! What is it called?" Momoko asked, trying to get a breath of air between spoonfuls of cake. No matter how ladylike she tried to make herself look, the dessert was too good to restrict herself."

"Red velvet. One of my favorites. I thought you'd like it." Hikaru showed a little smile before taking a bite of cake as well.

"You guessed correctly." Momoko said, taking a sip of tea. So now was the time to tell him. "Um, Hikaru?" He looked up at her. "I was wondering… since both Kaoru and I like you, and both of us have been dating you for about a week, so if you wouldn't mind, which one of us do you like more? I mean… you can't continue dating both of us…"

Hikaru put down his spoon. "I suppose you're right. But I think it's only fair if I tell it to both of you. So should we make an arrangement?"

"Oh, yeah." She was kind of disappointed though, that he hadn't told her right away.

"Monday, afterschool? Near the boy's locker room, okay? I'll tell Kaoru as well." Hikaru flipped out his phone and texted the news to Kaoru. As both were finished, Hikaru paid for the check and escorted Momoko to her house. She ran inside and plopped down on her bed. _What will happen if I don't win? What will happen if I do?_

---

Kaoru was practicing soccer in the park, when her phone rang in her pocket. _One new text message. From Hikaru Sato_. She quickly opened it up.

_Monday, afterschool, near boy's locker room._

_Come with Momoko and meet me there._

_I'll make my decision._

Kaoru's heart raced. Could it be? Could she win? She replayed her dates with Hikaru in her head. _The movie. The arcade. The walk in the park at night._ She _couldn't_ lose.

Her most recent date still left butterflies in her stomach.

"_You're really cute, Kaoru."_

"_Really?"_

"_And not only that, you can kick someone's butt if you needed. You're not all girly and weak."_

"_Thank you…"_

They had held hands and sat on the park bench, talking. They were a few minutes away from kissing when her father called her and _demanded_ that she come home right away. _Give me some privacy, pops. I'm a teenage girl now. Hanging out with a guy late at night… I'm going to do anything bad. This guy could seriously be my first boyfriend. My first kiss…_ It was a shame too. It really would have been her first kiss. She _deserved _Hikaru.

Besides, she liked Hikaru more than Momoko did anyway. Why _did_ Momoko like him? She liked him for his pretty face, charm, and smartness. She didn't see what Kaoru saw. _Maybe I'm overreacting? Maybe- no. All's fair in love and war. And this is my battlefield._

---

It was a week. A week had passed since they announced their rivalry. Kaoru and Momoko acted normally around one another, as if they were oblivious to the competition they knew was going on. Each tried to steal as much time from Hikaru as possible. They didn't talk about their dates, in fear that one had a better time than the other. Each one had been with Hikaru for more than a couple of dates. And even though they were confident in their feelings for Hikaru, they weren't confident in Hikaru's feelings for them. So the day, both dreaded and anticipated, finally came. Miyako was unaware of their plans but knew about their "fight" over Hikaru. But what could she do? It was her suggestion in the first place, and her two best friends were on opposing teams. She had no choice but to root for them both. She bid them both farewell and good luck as she walked home by herself.

So only Kaoru and Momoko were left at the girls' locker room. Standing awkwardly, not knowing what to say. This moment was so delicate. They were too proud to apologize. Depending on what they would say, they could make or break their friendship. So the loudmouth, nosy Momoko was first to speak.

"So… how many dates did you go on?" She asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"Three. You?"

"Two." _Crap. _She thought to herself. _I'm losing._ "To a café and a walk on the beach, under the stars." She added quickly. _Oh no… Did I sound like I was bragging right now?_

"He took me to a movie. And arcade and a walk in the park." Kaoru said, retaliating. She checked her watch. _Only seven more minutes until the bell rings. Until the end of school._

"I can't take this anymore." She sprinted out of the room and towards the hallway.

"Oi, where do you think you're going?!" Kaoru ran after the girl, her athletic legs running a litte faster. But Momoko already had a head start.

Momoko sprinted through the hallway, making sharp turns at corners. She was within a few meters of the locker room. Then she abruptly stopped and ran back a few meters. There she stood, with a horrified look on her face, on the verge of tears.

"What the he-" Kaoru started to say as she caught up to her. Then she saw why she stopped. Momoko and Kaoru were staring though the glass window of one of the doors.

There, inside, the lovely young Mrs. Fujioka sat, one leg crossed over the other, on top of her desk, her shirt a little looser than usual, with it unbuttoned a few buttons too low. Her hair seemed to be a little messier than usual. There, next to her, stood none other than Hikaru Sato, lips pressed against that of the teacher in front of him. His arms were wrapped behind her waist. Her arms were on his neck and shoulder.

The girls quickly turned around and headed back to the locker room. Momoko slumped against the wall and slid down, pressing her knees to her chest and covered her face with her hands. Kaoru just sat down on a bench, leaned back, and closed her eyes. _What's going on? I feel a sadness… and a certain feeling of anger. Or maybe not… my heart burns… What's this? Tears? I never cry… Is it jealousy? Betrayal? _

"What a player…" Momoko said quietly. "What a fucking player." Kaoru said nothing in return, but just let her tears slide down her face. Momoko stood up.

_Oh no…I hear her footsteps approaching me…I have to wipe away my tears…She can't see me like this._

"Are you… crying?" Momoko sat down near Kaoru. "I'm such an idiot… I guess you really did like him more than I did." _I can't believe I didn't notice that earlier. I'm the worst._ Momoko wrapped her arms around Kaoru, who let her head slump against Momoko's shoulders.

"We're the worst." Kaoru said quietly.

"I know."

"We let a guy like him rip us apart."

"What a piece of trash."

"What should we do?"

"Apologize."

"To him?"

"To each other, stupid." Kaoru lifted her head. Momoko smiled. "We let that bastard get in between us. And I'm sorry for not realizing how much you liked him."

"I'm sorry for just… being a bitch. But all's fair in love and war."

"I forgive you. I don't believe everything is fair though. But am I forgiven?"

"Of course. We'll never let something like this happen to us again. Ever."

"Or to Miyako."

"So now what?"

"Go home?"

"That… or revenge." Kaoru grinned. Momoko looked up surprised. _I can't think of anything better, actually._

---

"Hey, girls." Hikaru said, approaching them near the locker room.

"Hi, Hikaru." Momoko smiled as if nothing was wrong.

"Hey." Kaoru let out a shy smile.

"So, I guess you girls want to know who I chose, right?"

"That's alright. We already know who you chose." Momoko said, her smile fading.

"You do?" Hikaru looked at them both and raised and eyebrow.

"Yeah. And we came here to tell you that we hope we never see your fucking face again."

"Wha-" But there was no time for questions. With her black-belt strength, she punch him right in the face. Hikaru slammed against the fall and fell to his knees.

"You shouldn't have messed with us." Momoko said as she and Kaoru happily walked away, leaving him in pain.

_Don't mess with the power of friendship_.

**Author's Note:**

**Full author's note at invisibleheart . weebly. Com**

**(Link on my profile :D)**

**Peace.**

**-IH**


	16. Healing

**Reunited**

**Chapter 16: Healing**

Kaoru stormed out of the school building while Momoko trotted alongside her. They didn't know what to say. Only a couple of minutes ago, they were arguing. And now, it was awkward. What were they to say? The girls approached the bus stop and stood alone- no one else was around.

"So… I guess we should go over to Miyako's now, huh?" Momoko muttered. Kaoru just glanced in her direction and shrugged. "Don't times like this call for 'girls' night out'?"

"I guess so." Kaoru let out a deep sigh. "That fucking bastard. Why did I punch his face? I should've went for his balls instead." Kaoru grumbled.

"He deserved it, but I think it would be a little too far. Of course, he definitely deserved the black eye…"

"If not more."

The girls stood in silence once again. Momoko felt uneasy from the silence.

"On a scale of one to ten…" Momoko said slowly, "…how much did you like him?"

"Why are you asking?" Kaoru asked coolly, standing still, even though she was burning inside.

"I just want to know."

"You first."

"I asked you first." Momoko said, not letting herself be ruled over by Kaoru. Kaoru recognized her stubborn aura and sighed again.

"Around a seven… at first. He seemed like a regular guy, but he saw me as a girl. Or at least I thought he did."

"For me it was probably a five. I was too busy being happy over the fact that I was actually dating a guy to notice his personality."

"I can probably say the same for myself." Kaoru thought of another question, then hesitated. "Um… did you guys…"

"What?"

"Did you guys… k-… er... no… What's the farthest you went with him?" Kaoru was blushing. Momoko picked up on her shyness.

"Kaoru! You naughty girl! I didn't realize you guys went _that_ far!" Her eyes gleamed with excitement.

"N-no! I'm serious! We didn't. Just… just answer my question."

"A date. That's about it. Not even holding hands. Honestly, I don't even think he liked me." She looked at Kaoru, eyes shining with mischief. "Your turn. What did you do?"

"We were about to kiss." Kaoru said quietly. "But we didn't."

"_No way_! Seriously?" Momoko looked even more excited. _It's amazing how quickly she can get over a guy…_ Kaoru nodded shyly.

"Well, good thing you didn't." Kaoru looked at her. "Well, not for that reason, but well, you know, you might want to save your first kiss for someone else." Kaoru scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Name one _normal_ guy that would be interested in me." Momoko giggled. "What?"

"Really? What about Butch? He seems to be _very _interested in you." Momoko said, trying to suppress her laughter.

"What?! No! I said _normal_! Besides, he's just a player!" Kaoru was practically shouting. Momoko shushed her, giggling at her friend's reaction. "What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Momoko denied, her cheeks flushing.

"I think you do." Kaoru leaned in, smirking. "_Brick_, maybe?" Momoko's mind flashed back to her first date with Hikaru.

"What are you talking about?!" Momoko's reaction was similar to that of Kaoru's. Her scream was interrupted by the coming of the bus. It looked pretty empty. The girls took two seats near the back and started to whisper.

"Same thing you are." Kaoru continued. "If I end up with Butch, you will end up with Brick, and Miyako gets Boomer. It's common sense. The colors match." Kaoru said quietly. _So she was thinking about it too…_ Momoko said quietly. Her mind flashed back to the conversation with Boomer during game night.

"_It's only natural, Momoko. We're created out of the DNA of the PPGZ. It's only natural that we are drawn to our colors, our creators."_

_"We're drawn to each other like magnets. I know you can feel it. Everybody can."_

_"If you don't know already, you'll find out soon enough."_

Who knew Kaoru and Boomer could be philosophical. Of course, it didn't exactly take a brain surgeon to figure out that the boys would be drawn to those with almost similar DNA. This was the first time she was discussing it with the girls. Nobody really brought it up. She looked out the window. _We have a long way to go to Miyako's. Might as well discuss it. _

"Well… do you have any feelings for him?" Momoko asked after a short while. Kaoru glared at her. She sighed again.

"I hope not. What about you?"

"I'm… not quite sure. It's possible…" she admitted shyly. "But Miyako and Boomer's attraction, that's a little more obvious. Miyako doesn't really let her feelings show though, does she?"

"But Boomer does."

"Yep, and it's pretty obvious. Although he realizes that they'll still be drawn to each other, he still seems a bit unsure to me."

Kaoru laughed. "Those two are so cute. They like each other. They don't realize it, but everyone else does."

"So do you think it's true?"

"Huh?"

"That we'll still be attracted to them no matter what?"

"I really hope that's not true. But if it is, we can let go of our feelings."

"But what if it's destiny? What if we have no choice?" Momoko asked the very question she was afraid to get the answer to. _I like Brick, but as a friend right? Then what do those dreams- no! Don't think like that! Those dreams mean nothing. But what if they do? What if this is just predetermined and there's no escaping it? No, that can't be true!_ Her mind was arguing with itself. Her brain was split in two.

"I personally don't think that everyone has a predetermined destiny or fate that they can't change. I don't think there is a specific fate. 'Everything happens for a reason'? Screw that bullshit. But if it really is meant to be… we'll find out." Kaoru turned away and stared out the window.

She didn't like to admit it, but she actually liked these type of questions- the kind that made her mind wonder. _If we really are drawn to each other, how come I started dating Hikaru? But then again, that went down pretty bad. Maybe it was fate? No… that's not true. It doesn't matter. I know for sure that I will _NEVER _fall for Butch. _Sure, Butch maybe be drawn to her like a mouse to cheese. But she knew better, she wouldn't fall for that trap. For the entire bus trip, she continued attempting to reassure herself with lies.

---

Miyako received the emergency text from Momoko:

SummerSweetPeach: me and kaoru r coming ovr 2 ur house 4 the nite

_HiMiyaWari: y? wat happened?_

SummerSweetPeach: ill explain l8r

What could have possibly happened? That certainly was quick. If Hikaru had given them an answer, wouldn't they be arguing over it? Or at least one would come over and the other one would want to avoid her or would not be in the mood.

"Hey, Miyako! Can I get some black tea over here?" Butch called from the living room.

"Sure." Miyako said with a smile as she filled the teapot with water. "Any else want?"

"I'll have some green tea, please." Brick said.

"You guys…" Boomer said, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, no, it's alright." Miyako smiled.

"Alright… I'll have some blueberry tea?" Boomer said shyly. He didn't want the boys to boss Miyako around like that.

"Okay!" Miyako chirped, as she put the teapot on the stove and turned it on. The boys sat in the living room. "Not to be rude, but why are you guys here again?"

"We're bored." Butch said.

"We would hang out with Momoko and Kaoru as well, but we don't know where they are." Brick added.

"Yeah, we didn't really seem them for the entire week." Butch said.

"We're kinda sorry about following you home, though." Brick apologized. "We saw you talking to Boomer in the hallway and then we realized we had nothing better to do, so…"

"It's alright." Miyako said. "As long as my grandmother is fine with it, I won't really mind." Miyako started to say something else, but stopped. _Maybe not telling them won't hurt them…_ "They'll be here soon."

"Seriously?" Butch said, surprised. Miyako nodded and returned to the kitchen. Boomer groaned quietly.

"What's the matter, Boomer?" Butch said, pestering him. "Hoping to be alone with Miyako?"

"Well to be blunt, yeah." Boomer leaned back.

"Aw, we're sorry." Brick smirked. "Looks like out little babyface is growing up."

"Yeah, but unfortunately you guys aren't. You two have the maturity of a seven year old."

Brick ignored the insult. "So, you finally grew the balls to ask her out?"

"No. Shut up. I just wanted to spend some time with her."

"Yeah but you like her, don't you?"

"Obviously." Butch grinned.

"Shut up, both of you. As if you guys are any more subtle."

"What do you mean?" Brick asked.

"Study dates? _Real _dates?" Boomer asked. "Seriously, you might as well tell them."

"Kaoru is pretty hot, but me and her… no." Butch shook his head.

"Oh? You have someone else in mind? Then why are you so flirty with her? And why did you get jealous when she mentioned her date with Hikaru?"

"I wasn't jealous. I was looking out for her." Butch slumped back into the sofa.

"Oh really? That was rather overprotective of you. What do you see her as? A little sister? A daughter? Stop joking. You like her."

"I don-"

"And you." Boomer turned to Brick. "Study dates? Seriously? She's already practically a genius. I guess I'm the only one with balls here."

"What are you talking about? Look, even if we do like them, which we _don't_, they don't like us."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't, but-"

"But nothing. You are made from DNA. You guys have matching colors. Did it ever occur to you two dimwits that you are naturally drawn to each other?"

"That sounds like bullshit." Butch finally joined in again.

"Well, I thought about it, but it doesn't seem… possible…" Brick admitted. "Whatever. There's no sure way to know."

"How about you ask them?" Boomer asked.

"Why don't you ask her?" Brick retaliated. "You're _so_ sure that she likes you, right? So what's the problem? Just go up to her and ask her out, right? That simple. And then you're a happy couple."

"I… it's not as simple as that." Boomer said, avoiding Brick's gaze.

"Oh really? So you must be a hypocrite then. Don't accuse us of having any balls when you don't have any yourself." Butch added in.

"Tea's ready!" Miyako ran into the living room from the kitchen several rooms away, carrying a tray. She plopped down onto the couch between Butch and Boomer, and each boy picked up their cup of tea. "So what now? How do I keep three boys entertained?" she wondered out loud.

"I have a few ideas." Butch said with a mischievous smile. Boomer glared at him.

"Just shut up." Boomer faced Miyako. "When are Momoko and Kaoru going to be here?"

"Any minute now." She closed her eyes and leaned back on the couch. "Thank god it's Friday…"

Suddenly, the door burst open. Momoko practically ran in. She started taking off their shoes, without noticing the guests.

"You will _not_ believe this." Momoko said angrily. "Just wait till we tell you what that jerk did! I cannot believ-" She stopped as soon as she saw the other three boys sitting on the couch. "Not to be rude, but what the hell are you guys doing here?"

Kaoru burst in right after Momoko. "Seriously! Why the hell did you run like that?!" She looked up. "What the-"

"From the sound of it, we're beating someone up today. Who is the jerk and what did her do?" Brick asked.

Momoko stood their, unsure what to do. She looked at Kaoru.

"It's too late. I already did. And I don't see how this is any of your business."

"It's that Hikaru guy, isn't it? What did he do?" Boomer asked. Kaoru looked around the room and her eyes met with Butch. _"I told you so." Oh, save it. _

Momoko looked at Kaoru again. She was dying to complain. Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Well, Kaoru and I were kind of fighting over Hikaru…" she said and plopped down on the couch, between Butch and Brick. Butch scooted over to let enough space for Kaoru. Kaoru slid in between Butch and Momoko.

"Really? And who won?" Brick eyes both of the girls. They were both pissed, not depressed. Something was wrong.

"Neither. That jerk already had a girl." Momoko said angrily.

"Who?" Boomer was suddenly interested.

"Ms. Fujioka." Kaoru grumbled.

"No way!" Miyako gasped.

Butch looked incredulous. "The teacher!?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Brick said, stunned.

"Did you report him or not?" Boomer asked.

"Not yet, she did give him a black eye." Momoko said proudly.

"I should've kicked him in the balls instead." Kaoru muttered. The boys winced.

"Ouch. Never, ever, do that." Brick said.

"It hurts. _A lot_." Boomer said.

"I'm aware." Kaoru said coldly.

"You must be pissed, huh?" Butch said. "It's okay, I'll be your rebound guy." He grinned, grabbed Kaoru's shoulder and pulled her closer to him. Kaoru struggled to get out, while Butch effortlessly kept his grip on her.

"Let go, Butch. It's been a long week." she sighed. She was in no mood to play games. Butch let go and Kaoru slumped back.

"So, is it okay to sleep over here today?" Momoko asked.

"I don't know. My grandmother is taking a nap right now, so we can't be too loud."

"You guys can come over to our house." Brick said.

"We're _not_ sleeping over there." Kaoru clarified.

"We're not asking you to. Come over to our house to hang out, and come back here later." Butch said.

"This was supposed to be a girls' night out, you know." Momoko sighed.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Boomer said. "Come on, let's go." The three guys got up and started putting on their shoes. The girls just shrugged and were too tired to argue. So they slipped on their coats and shoes and followed the boys. Momoko looked in Brick's direaction and caught him looking back. She let a out an awkward cutesy smile and quickly looked away. _"It's only natural, Momoko."_ Boomer's words kept repeating in her head over and over again.

**Author's Note:**  
**Full author's note at invisibleheart . weebly. Com**  
**(Link on my profile :D)**  
**I'll update soon. (I hope xD)**  
**-IH**


	17. Growing Closer

**Reunited**

**Chapter 17: Growing Closer**

The six of them approached the boys' mansion-like house. Boomer unlocked the door and the three girls ran inside, taking off their shoes and plopping on the couch.

"So what are we doing?" Miyako asked eagerly.

"We could watch chick flicks and eat chocolate and cry our hearts out." Momoko replied.

"Don't be a drama queen." Kaoru laughed.

"No click flicks. How about… game night?" Brick said, as he headed towards the kitchen. "You guys want anything to eat?"

"No thank you.." Miyako said. "Game night again?"

Momoko was about to ask for sweets, but then changed her mind. She didn't want to be a rude guest.

"I'm good." Kaoru leaned back on the couch and tilted her head backwards. Butch approached the couch from behind and stood above her, looking down at her. "Get. Out. Of. My. Face." she said normally, trying to keep her temper.

"Someone's a little moody, huh?" Butch jumped over the couch and planted himself in between Momoko and Kaoru. "We're doing Truth or Dare again, right? Teams?"

"Same as before, right? Color teams?" Boomer said as he sat down near Miyako.

Brick came out of the kitchen with a bag of chips. He put them on the coffee table as he slid in between Momoko and Butch. "How about girls versus boys instead?"

The girls looked uneasy. But they just nodded and went along with it.

The six of them sat on the long couch- Momoko, Brick, Butch, Kaoru, Miyako, and Boomer.

"So, shall we start?" asked Boomer with a smile.

"Alright, but no pervy things." Momoko said.

"Well, that takes the fun out of it." Butch said. Kaoru just rolled her eyes.

"Ladies first." Brick said. The boys moved to a different couch facing the girls.

"Alright, truth or dare?" Momoko asked.

"Oh, no. When I said ladies first, I meant you get to _choose_ first. Truth or dare?" Brick asked, smiling.

The girls groaned and huddled together.

"So?"

"I say dare. I doubt they'll make us do something bad."

"Yeah right."

The girls broke from their formation. "Dare." Kaoru said.

"Daring, are we?" Butch smirked. The boys leaned in and whispered something. "Alright. Switch clothes with each other."

"What?"

"You heard us. Momoko wears Kaoru's outfit, Kaoru wears Miyako's outfit, and Miyako wears Momoko's outfit." Brick said, smiling. This was going to be a great dare.

The girls eyed each other's clothes. "I'm fine with it." Momoko said. Although Kaoru's outfit was a little more tomboyish than she would normally wear, it wasn't too bad.

"Me too." Momoko's outfit was pretty casual, but it was cute. Miyako could pull it off.

"I'm not." The five of them faced Kaoru. "The skirt…"

Sure enough, Miyako was wearing a pretty girly outfit.

"Don't wimp out. Go change. In the bathroom." Butch pointed in the direction of the bathroom. Kaoru glared at him. _Asshole. This was probably his idea. He was the one to arrange it like this, to see me in a skirt._ The girls reluctantly got up and head towards the bathroom.

---

Kaoru stood in her bra and undies as she studied Miyako's outfit, laying carefully on the sink. "Damn. I can't wear that." In front of her was Miyako's yellow babydoll shirt and denim skirt, along with yellow barrettes and white knee-high stockings with small yellow ribbons on the sides.

"Come on. You can do it!" Momoko cheered. Kaoru spun around. Momoko was already dressed in Kaoru's clothes- a tight white t-shirt with light brown short cargo pants, with black suspenders. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, as it had been in middle school, except with a small black hair band. She was holding Kaoru's black fleece sweater.

"Easy for you to say. You look good in my clothes." Kaoru was a little jealous. Momoko and Miyako could pretty much wear anything. Kaoru didn't look good in any type of clothing, but then again, she didn't really care about clothes that much.

"They're a _little_ baggy." Momoko said.

"You're just too skinny." Kaoru giggled.

"Come on, they're waiting!" Miyako stood up from behind the shower. She was wearing Momoko's light pink t-shirt, with a tight, light green zipper vest over. Momoko's light blue skinny jeans looked good on her as well. She even put on Momoko's green hair band.

"And they can keep waiting until hell freezes over."

"Don't be a child." Momoko shoved the clothes towards Kaoru. Kaoru looked at the clothes suspiciously.

"The skirt is too short. What if they see my..."

"Underwear? Don't worry. As long as you sit the right way, they won't see anything."

Kaoru sighed. Reluctantly, she tried to slip into Miyako's shirt. It was a little tight. _Skinny bitches,_ she thought to herself, and chuckled. Momoko and Miyako were pretty skinny, but in a pretty way. Not toothpicks. Kaoru had a slightly larger build, because of her muscle. She was still skinny, but not as skinny as her friends. She was medium skinny. She squeezed into the skirt. She was only doing this dare so as not to be mocked by Butch. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of winning. Lastly, slipping on the socks, smoothing out her hair a little, and pinning some of her bangs out of the way, she stepped out with Momoko and Miyako.

---

The girls shoved Kaoru towards the boys.

"Oh my damn." Butch said. "You actually put it on." He grinned smugly.

Kaoru tried to resist punching him. He let out a heavy sigh and headed towards the door. "Happy? You guys saw. Now let's change back-"

"Nuh uh. You girls have to stay like that until the end of the game." Brick said. Kaoru glared at him. The girls shrugged and headed towards the couch. Of course, they were fine with it. They weren't the ones stuck in a freaking skirt. Kaoru joined the girls on the couch and tried to sit down in a way that was comfortable and would not flash her undies to the three perverts sitting across from her. She shifted from one position to the other. She leaned back on the couch and tugged her skirt down a little, keeping her legs straight.

"Alright bastards. It's your turn." Kaoru said angrily.

"Dare." Brick and Butch said quickly.

"Wow. No hesitation there, huh?" Momoko asked. She looked at the girls. They leaned together.

"So? What do we make them do?"

"I don't know. But I'll make them suffer."

"You sure know how to keep a grudge."

"They will pay for this."

"Calm down! Well, I have nothing, but..."

Miyako sat up. "Um, is it okay if I use my iPhone app for this?" she asked the boys.

"Whatever floats your boat." Butch said. Miyako sifted through her purse for her phone and whisked it out.

"So you guys don't mind if we use this for the rest of the game, right?" Momoko asked.

"It's fine with us." Boomer replied. Miyako shook her phone. The phone let out a clicking noise until the wheel landed on the boy's turn. Miyako pressed "dare" and looked at the instructions. She showed it to the girls. Kaoru snatched it out.

"No way in hell." She started to shake again but Butch grabbed it out of her hands.

"Be fair, Kao-rin." He read the instructions out loud. "Hold hands with the person opposite until its your turn again..." He smiled. "Heh... this should be fun."

"No! Shake again!" Momoko leaped towards the phone but Brick yanked it away from Butch just in time. Momoko quickly reached towards Brick instead, but he passed it to Boomer. Momoko nearly fell on top of Brick, so she quickly pulled back.

"If you guys don't mind..." Boomer said, extending his hand towards Miyako. "A dare is a dare." Miyako looked around and shyly placed her hand in Boomer's.

"Yeah, but why must we be punished?!" Momoko groaned. She turned and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Don't be a baby. It's just a dare." Brick tugged on Momoko's hand and grasped it firmly. She turned to face him but avoided his eyes. _How embarrassing..._

Kaoru glowered at Butch. He tried to grab her hand but she tried to swat his hands away. He finally caught it. She tried to pull away but then gave up- he was too strong. The six sat in an awkward silence for a second.

"Let's spin again." Miyako said, reaching towards her phone. With her free hand, she shook the phone.

"No need." Boomer reached for the phone and took it out. "Unlike you guys, we're creative enough to think of our own dares." Miyako playfully stuck her tongue out at him. "Truth or d-"

"Truth." Kaoru said without hesitation.

"Somebody's wimping out, huh?" Butch mocked her.

"Shut it. Just give us our question."

The boys leaned together to discuss. The girls could hear them laughing.

"What's so funny?" Momoko asked.

"Your truth. What are your bra sizes?" Brick said, trying to contain his laughter. The three girls nearly jumped out of their seats.

"As if we're telling you that!"

"Keep dreaming pervs!"

"I'd rather not say..."

"Come on. It's not that hard." Butch said to Kaoru. Momoko and Kaoru glared at him. "I can even guess for you. You're a 36-" Butch was interrupted by a pillow shoved in his face.

Miyako looked at her two friends who were teeming with anger.

"34B." She said quietly. Her friends turned to face her. The boys also stared at her, but not exactly at her face.

"Huh?"

"My... size."

"Why would you tell them that?! They're p-e-r-v-e-r-t-s!" Momoko exclaimed.

"It's not that big of a deal to me. It's just the same as asking for a clothing size, right?"

Momoko did a facepalm. "No... it's definitely not the same as a clothing size..."

"Come on, just say it, it's not that hard. It _is_ a clothing size, after all." Butch said, irritating Kaoru.

"Yeah, a _different _ piece of clothing." Kaoru sighed. This noise was giving her a headache. "36C. Happy?"

"Damn." Butch said. "Pretty big, huh Kao-rin?" He poked her breast. Kaoru jumped up and placed her hands around Butch's neck.

"_Never do that again, got it?_" Even while being strangled, Butch was still smiling. He nodded.

"Kind of sexy when you're pissed, huh?"

"Back off." Kaoru would have definitely killed him some other time, but she really didn't have the energy today.

"What about you, Momoko?" Brick asked, ignoring the two fighting in the corner.

Momoko blushed. "Can I please pass on this one?" she asked quietly.

"Why? Come on, Momoko." Miyako said, smiling. _Miyako, not you too..._

"This is kinda embarrassing..." Momoko said quietly. She started to twirl a lock of hair around her finger. "34A..." she said, more quietly.

Brick stifled a laugh. "That's kinda small... isn't it?" Momoko glared at him. Of course, she was having the hardest time of all of them. She wasn't exactly as... developed as Miyako or Kaoru. Her curves had only grown slightly in two years, making it harder to fill out dresses as well as the fashion-crazy Miyako or even the tomboyish Kaoru.

"Wait, two years ago, weren't you like completely flat? How could you have grown so much, Kaoru?"

"None of your business." The four turned to Kaoru and Butch arguing in the corner.

"Yeah, that doesn't really make sense." Miyako said, sitting in between Kaoru and Momoko.

"Don't tell me those are... fake?" Boomer asked, moving to sit across Miyako.

"Of course not!" Kaoru hissed.

Momoko and Brick were sitting at the corner now, listening to the four of them arguing over Kaoru's chest. Momoko sat scowling. Brick noticed her bad mood.

"You alright?" he said, quietly.

"Just fine. Go discuss Kaoru's large boobs over there with them." Momoko turned away.

"I get it." Brick leaned towards her a little. "I'm sorry for laughing. But honestly, I'd prefer flat chests over large ones any day." Momoko loosened up a little as Brick joined the conversation.

"They're _not _fake!" Kaoru shouted.

"Really? Can I feel to make sure?" Butch smirked.

"Butch, I swear..."

"Then how _do_ you explain it?" Momoko asked.

"I don't know. Growth spurt?"

"In two years?" Miyako raised an eyebrow.

"I had a b-cup in 8th grade. I just binded my chest." Kaoru blushed.

"But _why_?" Momoko asked.

"It was so girly... and gross." Kaoru shuddered. "The only reason I'm not still doing it now is because it would be weird to have a flat-chest in sophomore year."

"Gee, thanks." Momoko whimpered.

"That's not what I meant." Kaoru sighed.

"So, are you guys ready?" Miyako asked.

"Huh?"

"For your next dare?" The girls grinned.

---

Miyako shook her phone again. It was a long night. They pretty much gave up on "truth" so it was nothing but dares. Toothpaste mustaches, prank calls, and feeding the person opposite you a glass of water while blindfolded was tiring. Of course, they had done more than that. So they had decided that this was their last dare for the night. It was getting late, after all. The six stared at the screen; there was complete silence other than the clicking sound of the phone.

"Boys." Momoko said. She picked up the phone and pressed dare. "Um, do we _have_ to do this?" She asked.

"This can't be good." Miyako leaned in.

"We're not supposed to be doing anything. It's their dare, right?" Kaoru asked. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Yeah, but it involves us."

"Just read it."

"One person must close their eyes and have three other players kiss him on the hand, ear, and nose. They must guess which kiss belongs to which player." The boys stared blankly.

Butch raised his hand. "I volunteer to be-"

"I don't think so." Kaoru stuffed a pillow in his face again.

"But there's three of us, and three of you." Miyako said. The girls glared at her. They knew it, she had a "brilliant" idea coming, and they didn't want to hear it. "So how about each one of us kisses the person opposite us in one of those places?" _Miyako you IDIOT!_

"That's a better idea. Can we do it on the lips instead?"

"Shut up, Butch." The girls huddled together.

"So, who gets which one?"

"Really, I'd rather not do this."

"I don't want to do this either."

"Come on, it's just a kiss. It's not even on the lips."

"Just a ki- How many kisses have you had, Miyako?"

"That's not the point."

"I call the hand. There's no way I'm kissing his nose or ear. Ugh."

"I guess I'll get the ear."

"Then I get the nose? What? Can we switch?"

"Why, Miyako? It's just a kiss, right?"

The three girls broke from their formation.

"Alright. Close your eyes." Kaoru said.

"Why? Can't we just do it with eyes op-" Kaoru clamped her hand over Butch's eyes, then picked up his hand and quickly pecked it. Brick and Boomer had already closed their eyes. Miyako leaned into Boomer and placed her hands on his shoulders. She moved in and kissed Boomer's nose. Momoko came up to Brick's side and leaned in. She quickly leaned in, tilted her head, and kissed Brick's ear. The three girls all moved back and slumped into the couch, blushing.

"Happy now?" Kaoru wiped her mouth.

"Really? Only the hand? Are you that afraid?"

"If I could've avoided kissing you completely I would've." Butch ignored her comment.

"What are you girls going to do now?" Brick asked.

"Um, leaving? It's 11:30." Momoko said, heading towards the door.

"Already?" Boomer asked, sounding a little disappointed. "It's raining. You guys are going to catch a cold."

"We'll be fine. It's not raining as hard as it was last time." Miyako said.

"And we're definitely not sleeping over again." Kaoru said, trying to forget last time they slept over.

"Why not?" Butch asked.

"Shut up. Your perviness is giving me a headache."

"I'm serious."

"Why not? Boy/girl sleepovers are a little weird, you know. Besides, our parents would kill us if they even knew we're just hanging out with guys in the day." Momoko answered.

"Plus, what would people assume if they thought they we were sleeping over here?" Kaoru asked. "They'd call us sluts and jump to conclusions."

"But what if we tell them we're childhood friends?" Boomer asked.

"Now we're lying to protect our rep?" Momoko answered. "We weren't exactly friends back then."

The girls waved and started to head out the door.

"I hope they feel better now." Boomer said as he closed the door.

"You mean after that Hikaru thing?" Brick asked.

"I would personally kill Hikaru if I could. That bastard lied to her."

"To both of them. But why are you so pissed? Do you really care about Kaoru that much? Maybe it was because she liked Hikaru more than you?" Brick turned to Butch.

"Shut u-"

"Guys!" Momoko burst through the door. Her eyes were wide and she was completely drenched. "Kaoru just collapsed!"

---

After Kaoru was carried in onto the couch, Momoko and Miyako slowly walked back inside. Momoko slumped onto a chair and shivered. Brick tried to avoid looking at her wet, white t-shirt, which was now slightly see-through from the rain.

"You guys should go to the bathroom and dry up." Brick said. Boomer headed to the kitchen to make some tea and Brick slumped into a chair. Butch was watching over Kaoru, who was laying on the couch unconscious, still in Miyako's outfit. Butch had covered her with a blanket. Boomer approached him.

"Weird. Last time I was in the same position you were in."

"I wonder why she passed out." Brick wondered out loud.

"She was complaining about a headache and about not feeling well for the entire evening." Butch said quietly.

"Oh, you're right." Brick said. "So what do we do? I'm guessing the girls won't want to leave until their friend get's better."

"You guessed correctly." Momoko said. She sat near Kaoru. "I'm not leaving her alone." She was holding her wet t-shirt in her hand and was wearing Kaoru's black fleece sweater instead. Miyako came up to Kaoru as well.

"She's so cute when she's sleeping." Miyako said, giggling.

"I know. Not at all like when she's awake, all violent." Momoko added. "Even the mighty Kaoru can sometimes be reckless and push herself too hard." Momoko yawned.

"Are you tired?" Brick asked.

"Yeah, we kinda are." Miyako said, leaning into Momoko. "Sorry to be a bother to you guys."

"Not at all." Boomer said. Momoko headed towards the kitchen and Brick followed.

"Sorry for randomly sleeping over." She said quietly.

"It's fine. We wanted you to sleep over anyway, but not because of this."

"This is pretty much what happened last time. Watch, next time it's going to be me." Momoko chuckled. "Why did you guys want us to sleep over so much anyway."

"No reason. I guess it's just fun with you guys around. We don't have too many friends at this school."

"But there's always a mob of girls chasing after you."

"That's different."

"You're so lucky, though. If I could have a swarm of guys chasing after me…" Momoko trailed off. "If you're that lonely, then I guess the six of us just need to hang out more." _Or just the two of us- wait! No!_ Momoko shook her head at the thought.

"You alright?" Brick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep. Just… tired." She said, and smiled.

---

Kaoru nearly jumped out of her bed. She had a nightmare- she couldn't remember it, but it was definitely bad. She felt dizzy, and the blood started to go to her head. She looked around. It was completely dark except for the faint glow of a computer screen. She patted her hands around her. A bed. She was on someone's bed. The previous day's events started to appear in her memory. Hikaru. Ms. Fujioka. Boys. Truth or dare. Boys. Butch. Rain. And then she blanked out. In the darkness, she tried to figure out the room. She couldn't make out the color of the walls in the darkness. But then she saw a figure at the edge of the bed. Butch was leaning against the bed, sitting on the floor. His head was tilted back. _No way. Butch? Butch's room?_ She tried to move closer to make sure it was actually him. She was still in last night's clothes, a good sign. Yep. It was him. That short messy black hair. It was Butch. She moved back. Was it him who carried her upstairs. That was awfully nice… unless he had a motive. He didn't _do_ anything, did he? She slumped back and tried to fall asleep.

"Kaoru? Are you awake?" Butch rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah." Kaoru said quietly, turning to face Butch.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little dizzy. But I'm fine."

"That's good." Butch moved closer. "You scared us." He chuckled quietly.

"Did you…"

"Huh?"

"Are you the one who carried me upstairs?" she asked quietly.

"Yep." _He's probably the one who carried me inside as well_. He noticed her silence. "What's the matter? Would you have rather had Brick or Boomer do it?"

"Thank you." she said quietly. "For looking after me." Thank goodness it was dark, or else Butch would have seen her blushing.

"No problem. Maybe you'd like to thank me with a kiss?" It was dark, but she could tell he was grinning.

"Shut up." She said, and turned to the other side.

"Back to normal, I see."

"What time is it?" Butch searched for his cell phone in his pocket.

"3:27." He said. Kaoru groaned.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"No problem. I'm just glad you're feeling better." Kaoru looked at him and moved over in her bed, towards the wall.

"Don't sit on the floor." Butch looked up at her. "What do you want in return, anyway?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you did something nice for me. Later, I'm sure you're going to use that against me to get something you want. Well? Any requests while I'm still half asleep?"

"I didn't take care of you because I want something in return. As a friend, I'm looking out for you."

"As a friend? And there's nothing you want in return?" Kaoru asked sleepily.

"Not really." Butch said. Kaoru went back to sleep, facing away from Butch. Butch sat at the edge of the bed, leaning against the wall.

"_As a friend."_ Those words echoed in Kaoru's head. Suddenly, the nightmare didn't seem so bad anymore.

**Author's Note:**  
**Full author's note at invisibleheart . weebly. Com**  
**(Link on my profile :D)**  
**I'll update soon. (I hope xD)**  
**-IH**


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